Before launching his Kickstarter, Ray Machuga reached out to me about the RPG campaign for Pathfinder Modern Adventures. His pitch was perfectly timed as the debut of Starfinder was still fresh on my mind and I saw a surefire idea in his product. With that said, let’s dive into the interview…
EGG EMBRY – Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, Ray. We’re going to talk about your Kickstarter, Pathfinder Modern Adventures – Tell us about the game.
RAY MACHUGA – Thanks for having me, Egg. Modern Adventures is a tabletop role-playing game designed and developed by myself and published through Higher Grounds Publishing. It’s a gritty, modern fantasy game set in a mirror-image of our own world. It’s a game about normal people who do fantastic things. Leaving the drudgery of everyday life behind to delve into the inner truths of the world. Further, it is a game about storytelling and character development.
RAY MACHUGA – Inspiration for Modern Adventures has come from a vast array of different places. Of course, games like Shadowrun, World of Darkness and of course Dungeons & Dragons and the obvious Pathfinder RPG have definitely been inspirational to the development process. I have a distinct love for realistic games. Moreover, games that are set in the real world really appeal to me as well, so I wanted to create something that reflected my passion for such games.
I only recently cracked open my copy of Starfinder at the beginning of this month. If I’m not mistaken, I think Starfinder was originally announced sometime in 2016, so that would mean that the original framework for Modern Adventures was laid down shortly before that. Their release date was a very happy coincidence.
EGG – Before this interview, we talked about the half-races and thin-bloods. What are thin-bloods and what are your plans for them in Pathfinder Modern Adventures?
RAY MACHUGA – Thin-Bloods are characters that have a relative of another race somewhere in their distant genealogy. Mechanically speaking, it opens up a few options to play a character that looks and feels like one race, but has the option of purchasing a few traits from another. The Half-Bloods book is going to be awesome, and I’m very excited to release it. In it, I take the advancements in modern fertility science and apply it to a world in which races like elves, dwarves, trolls and the like actually exist. To boil it down, the Half-Bloods book gives players the option of answering the question, “What happens if an elf and an orc were to have a baby?” I’ve actually presented one of the half-bloods in the core book, the Half-Gnomes. They’ve become a play tester favorite.
Half-Blooded are a relatively new occurrence in modern cultures within the setting, so it opens a whole new realm of potential role-play hooks involving mistrust and prejudice. Not to reveal too many spoilers, some of the older cultures look upon the emergence of half-bloods as an ill omen, and will lead into adventure paths and meta-plots that span an entire game line.
EGG – As the publisher, can you highlight one pledge level/backer reward that you think is the standout for Pathfinder Modern Adventures?
RAY MACHUGA – I would have to say that the stand-out pledge would probably be Level Fifteen, which not only gives you first access physical copies of the core book as well as the physical Half-Bloods book. It also opens up backers of that level to play test documents and updates, the ability to give feedback as development progresses which will give you a chance to have a say in the final form of the game itself. To top it off, you get access to the backer-only character sheet of that pledge level. For me, this is the pledge level that really stands out and gives backers the chance to really watch the game develop and have a say in its contents.
EGG – What was the game that changed you into a gamer?
RAY MACHUGA – That’s hard to say, since I began playing tabletop RPGs at a very young age. Still, I remember being very young, perhaps 10 years old, and picking up my first small stack of RPG guides and pouring over them. My mother would have killed me if she knew I had walked from our apartment about three blocks away to go to that store, but I did it anyway. I picked up a White Dwarf Magazine and was amazed at the artwork I found there. I had also picked up a first edition of Vampire The Masquerade. I can still recall sitting down on the couch and cracking open that book, and the feeling I got as I poured over the contents. I believe that was the very moment, sitting on that couch in Fraser Michigan, in which I truly became a gamer.
RAY MACHUGA – In the end, it boils down to a love for gaming. From my unique vantage as a writer, gamer and human being, I wanted to present my vision of tabletop gaming to the world, and Higher Grounds has really made that a reality.
EGG – As a Kickstarter veteran, what advice would you give others thinking about launching a gaming Kickstarter?
RAY MACHUGA – Be ready to work. A Kickstarter campaign is not something that you can just, as those famous infomercials suggest, “Set it and forget it.” You need to work on the project you want to launch the Kickstarter for first and have it just as close to ready as you can. Then you need to make sure that people know you plan to launch a Kickstarter. While the Kickstarter going, you need to tell people. Your first Kickstarter funding is probably going to come from friends and family. It takes work. Be ready for that.
EGG – What projects are you currently developing?
RAY MACHUGA – In addition to the Modern Adventures core book and Half-Bloods, We have N. Jolly working on the Player’s Option book for Modern Adventures, J. Gray working on Conspiracies. On the horizon for Modern Adventures is our Horrors line which will detail player character options, setting information and history for werewolves, vampires, ghosts and revenants. I’m also working on the Dhovaine RPG.
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
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Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
The weather is beginning to turn a bit cooler. Soon enough the calendar will change from September to my favorite month: October. A whole month where it is ok to bask in the idea of the horror genre. A whole month dedicated to experiencing as many scares as possible.
Kickstarter campaign ends on Wednesday, October 18, 2017, at 10:36 AM EDT.
The Pitch:
What if Mary Shelley’s famous gothic novel was a lie? What if Victor Frankenstein paid Captain Walton to announce both he and his creation had perished and vanished in the Arctic? What if instead, the pair headed west, across Europe, to Ireland and from there to the new world? To America?
The Story:
This is a tale of action and adventure, but also a story that explores ideas of damnation and salvation, of fresh starts and bitter ends, and what it takes to atone for the deadliest of sins.
At the heart of the story is the complex relationship between Frankenstein and his creation. The man, constantly wrestling with the knowledge that he created life from death, and the monster, heartbroken by the violence that rages inside him and determined to prevent his “father” from repeating the mistakes of the past.
Page 1 – Art by David Hitchcock
John’s Thoughts:
This is a 48-page graphic novel of Frankenstein in the Old West… it’s one of those ideas that I’m both scratching my head about and also wondering – why didn’t I think of that? What better place for the Doctor and his Monster to lose themselves than in the untamed frontier of America far from their birthplaces?
The Rewards:
Fairly cheap for the digital version of the basic graphic novel ($4), but the printed copy is also very reasonable ($14). Sadly for those coming onboard at this point, the $68 Wanted Dead or Alive level is all gone, and with it your chance to make a cameo in the comic. As to some of the higher end options – the Saloon Decorator ($204) allows you access to an original page of artwork (9 spots are left at the time of this writing). Or the Town Marshall ($272) gets you an original commission of your choosing by the artist (5 spots left).
The Verdict:
The artwork on the page and the core idea tell me to back the comic book. They’ve launched at a perfect time of year for such a story, and I’m looking forward to seeing the finished book.
Art by David Hitchcock
***
For more information on Frankenstein, Texas, check out their Facebook Page here.
For this post, I’m reviewing nine RPG Kickstarters that are powered by the D&D 5e, Era d10, FATE, Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, Starfinder, and more systems. Nine RPGs that are running campaigns and hoping you’ll back them. Let’s count’em down!
“Explore a solar system and defend Humanity from an alien fleet! Era: Balam runs on your choice of Era d10, FATE or Savage Worlds!
In this game, you are a pilot, with your own “Paladin” one-man ship, sent out to explore space and defend Humanity! Together with other pilots, you’ll form a squadron and head out into the black…
This game offers rules for space combat, salvaging materials and upgrading your fighter, a list of bases you can visit (both friendly and not-so-friendly), space-based dogfights and a variety of weapons from bullet-based to plasma cannons!
If you like games such as Homeworld, Freelancer or Elite: Dangerous, this is the RPG for you!
In Era: Balam, your ship is a part of your character, as much as the pilot.
It defines most of your physical statistics, providing a duality to this game which I’ve never explored before: while a pilot may technically survive without their ship, it will feel like they have lost a part of themselves.
A Paladin and its Pilot are a single character in this game, working together!
The Paladin ships which appear in this game are fully upgradable, and provide various options as the players progress, including painlessly changing “Class” by replacing the Main Module!”
I’ve covered several Shades of Vengeance games in this column, I’ve interviewed Ed Jowett of SoV, and I’m freelancing on an Era d10 project for SoV, clearly I’m all for Vengeance. But among SoV’s games, what makes Era: Balam stand out? In a word, expansion. In this game you’re both your character and your ship, which explains this game’s setup concisely while offering a lot of cool options. Both the person and the tool have a role to play and together they elevate this RPG to be something akin to Star Wars: Rogue Squadron or Battlestar: Galactica. Add to that, this RPG is available for Savage Worlds, FATE, or Shades of Vengeance’s house system, Era d10, and you have a winner.
You can see examples of Shades of Vengeance’s work at DriveThruRPG here.
“Take up sword and gun to seek fame and fortune in this gritty fantasy game set in modern-day Earth.
“I know what you’re thinkin’, kid. With all the stuff out there, all the cash, treasure, monsters and adventure waiting to be had.. what the hell is anyone doing in a nine-to-five, waste-of-time job?”, the old dwarf grunted with a voice like rolling gravel. “Well, I’ll tell ya, it sure as shit doesn’t have anything to do with really livin’, that’s for sure.” The dwarf was eye level with the kid, even though the human boy was probably only a small fraction of his own age. Stubby fingers curled around his massive, braided beard and stroked downward, flattening out a few stray red-and-gray hairs that had gone astray. “It’s all about security. See, cities like this one got all kinds of that stuff. Vancouver. Atlanta. Hell, even the most dangerous hood in Detroit ain’t got nothin’ on the shit you’ll find taking up gun and sword and heading off into the tombs. Most folks’ll tell you that, and most folks are right. I done seen more death and carnage than any CEO could ever dream about in an entire lifetime. I’m the sole survivor of a group of seven of us.” the dwarf said with a half-psychotic grimace that may have been mistaken for a smile, showing off those yellowed teeth interspersed with gold ones that replaced the teeth that had been knocked out by god-knows-what. “It’s a shit life, being an adventurer. You’re going to go hungry. You’re going to get hurt. Shit, you will probably even die.” he said with a chuckle. “So why do I do it?” the dwarf peered at the kid with his one good eye and got close enough that the boy could smell the leather of his armor and the whiskey on his breath, “Kid. If you gotta ask, you ain’t ever gonna know.”
Pathfinder: Modern Adventures is a game of fantasy based in the real-world. It’s Earth, with a twist. Humans are not alone. There are elves, gnomes, dwarves and all manner of other strange creatures, hybrids and half-bloods earning a living and trying to get by. Nearly everyone just wants a comfortable, safe life where they are free to exist in peace, earn a liveable wage and die with a few grandchildren under foot.
Then, there are the adventurers.
The adventurers make their living by scouring the lands trying to find old tombs, abandoned catecombs and places lost to time. They battle monsters, brave dangerous traps and explore the unknown. Some do it in the hopes of getting rich. Others do it to earn a name. Some simply want to test their own mettle. Adventurer’s leave the relative safety of the lives they know, working jobs, tending their home or living on the streets in order to explore parts of the world that no sane person would ever enter.
From the veil of the city, you might never see the truth of the world beyond. All the magic and monsters that only rarely creep into the cities themselves are waiting for a brave soul to come and face them, and earn vast richest and fame in so doing.”
Ray Machuga of Higher Ground Publishing messaged me about this project before it came out (the press release is here) and the concept hooked me. The timing for a Pathfinder product that sits, more or less, squarely in the middle of the timeline between Pathfinder and Starfinder could not have been better timed. Starfinder is a hit and Ray’s product is the logical outgrowth of that – Modern Adventures. How would elves and trolls and mortgages and gazebos live together today? This is the game to answer that and offer new levels of adventures.
You can see examples of Higher Ground Publishing’s work at DriveThruRPG here.
“A Fate Core campaign setting of villainous henchmen in a hero thwarts Doomsday device world.
Your money will bring our Henchmen to life.
The Premise
Henchmen is a game in which characters get to explore the trials and tribulations of being little cogs in the grand machine of an evil organisation. While many games focus on gaining power and overcoming foes, this game takes a slightly different approach.
You can play the game any way you want to, but we envisage Henchmen being played in two ways, the ‘day in the life’ tribulations of an expendable goon squad, or as a long ‘Villains Journey’ campaign. For the latter, we have outlined a ‘development arc’ of significant milestones, linked to each character’s personal journey from nobody to nightmare.
Unlike more ‘heroic’ games, Henchmen is not predicated on PCs succeeding on their various errands and missions. Success might be achieved of course, but often failure, disaster and doom must be coped with, blame must be deflected and whatever credit is left must be seized.
The Evil Organisation is a unique Fate Fractal for Henchmen, with its own aspects, skills, Fate points and perks. You might even think of the PCs as its stress boxes, since it will expend them to protect itself from consequences.”
Wanna-lancer Reward Levels:
“Recruited to Evil / Master of Evil / Master of Good
Pledge £100 ($129) or £150 ($193) depending on reward level
Work with our team to design a Henchman/an evil organisation/an opponent for the Henchmen to join our existing examples. Cast yourself, a friend or a favoured character as…
Includes:
Credit as a Contributing Designer”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Want to be the villain? This setting is founded to be the stage for that idea as you play the no-goodniks! Canterbury Games Studio is offering several options to create NPCs or an evil organization for their FATE-based setting; so, if creating enemies using FATE is your idea of fun, Canterbury Games has you covered.
“A new cyberpunk-themed tabletop roleplaying game where your identity has become the most valuable commodity on the planet.
IDENTECO
IDENTECO is a game about the struggle to define humanity and retain identity in the highly digital era known as “The Static Age.” Corporations hold more power over the people in the world. They have created ways to monetize and commoditize a person’s identity using massive data farms and social engineering hacks to influence everyday life. Through carefully crafted marketing and slick branding, the Corps don’t force their will onto people, as much as they enforce their worth in people’s minds.
You play a character trying to survive in the Static Age, starting at the bottom and working your way up the social or corporate ladder by any means necessary.
IDENTECO is built on an new, modern D20-based system that emphasizes fast gameplay and rewards social interaction and role playing. Every interaction builds onto the story and the legacy of the characters. The more you play the game, the more you construct your character’s identity, or possibly identities. As the game progresses the thin line between famous and infamous depends solely on who’s watching.
The year is 2099. The world is a much different place.
After a series of devastating terrorist attacks on America’s heartland by an unseen enemy the government was in disarray. The corporations were the only thing left to protect the populace and rebuild society. So they did. Like technocratic gods they rebuilt America™ in their image, and then used new economies of scale and political financial systems to reshape the globe. As a reaction to the attacks, the U.N. created the Centralized Human Identity Program (C.H.I.P.), a sort of universal I.D. program for the world. The C.H.I.P. is implanted in your arm when you are born and is encrypted using your unique DNA sequence. It standardized passports, medical records, employment histories, education records, and much more. It’s a sort of living history, if you will. And Corps have figured out ways to use this information for dubious means.
Now neon-speckled city-states called megaplexes have sprung up around the world. These enormous urban areas have reshaped the landscape, blending tech and corporate culture into shiny playgrounds for consumers and industries alike. There is a steep divide between the haves and the have-nots; those in the city, and those on the fringe.
Outside the cities, non-CHIPed folk live off what is left in the wasteland areas in between cities. Small settlements and simple cities act as rest stops for weary travelers and nomadic tribes. Out in the wastes, you battle beast and man to live a “free” life away from corporate influence. It’s a simpler, but no less deadly, place.”
Wanna-lancer Reward Levels:
“Pledge $150 OR $250
Entrepreneur OR Greaser
You get to work with the designers to create a custom Corporation OR a custom R.O.V. [Remotely Operated Vehicle] that will appear in the Core Rule Book, plus all the rewards at the Operative level.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
To help establish the feel of this RPG, Humanoid Games produced a prose anthology set in their world (you can check it out on Amazon here). This will give you a better idea of whether this game is for you. For me, post-apocalyptic cyberpunk presented in a variant d20 system with great art and wanna-lancer* options where I get to create a corporation and then fight it in the game has my interest piqued! Bring it on!
*Wanna-lancer™ – A gamer that’s pursuing freelance RPG work. Some back RPG Kickstarters that offer rewards to create NPCs, spells, items, adventures, etc. in order to build up their resume, make contact with publishers, and learn what’s expected on assignments.
You can see examples of Humanoid Games’ work at Amazon here.
“A massive tome of nearly 300 out-of-this-world creatures for 5E, Starfinder, and Pathfinder sci-fi and space adventures!
In space, maybe no one else can hear you scream, but those cries of terror are music to the GM’s ears. While there are monster books aplenty for fantasy games, there has never been a truly encyclopedic tome of terrors from beyond the stars… until now!
Cover image is a placeholder. The final cover piece is out of this world!
The Alien Bestiary brings you hundreds of monsters for your space and sci-fi game, whether you play with the brand-new Starfinder Roleplaying Game or the 5th Edition of the world’s most famous RPG!
In addition, by popular demand we have added the Alien Bestiary Companion for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, which is now available to bring all of our awesome new monsters and your favorites from our More Monsters polls together, with an appendix guiding you to other awesome extraterrestrials already published in official Pathfinder sources.
The Alien Bestiary is a full-sized, full-color bestiary features at least incredible aliens of every description, from tiny robot walking eyes to Lovecraftian Great Old Ones, from humanoid races both friendly and foul to inhuman abominations from the darkest nebulas. Of course, fans of the star-spanning Legendary Planet saga will recognize the fiendish foes like the savage klaven footsoldiers, sinister jagladine genetic engineers, warmongering bil’djooli shock troopers, and many, many more!
Bil’djooli Shock Trooper, by Lance Red
In addition, as part of our continued partnership with Robert Brookes and the gang at Encounter Table Publishing, fans of the awe-inspiring Aethera Campaign Setting will also find more exciting additions to their spacefaring saga, from the invading taur and aether-touched infused to the organic symbionts, living machine phalanx, and, of course, the magnificently malevolent kytons!
That promise of 200 pages of marvelous monsters is just the starting point. As our Kickstarter goes along, we’ll be adding tons of terrific space-dwelling monsters from across the fantasy/sci-fi legendarium, from insidious intellect devourers and aboleth to parasitic viper vines, brain-eating neh-thalggu, space-warping hounds of Tindalos, murderous gugs, lethal lunarmas, a regiment of robots, and spectacular star-soaring solar dragons! Best of all, when you back this project YOU get to help decide which monsters make the cut! Vote early and often for your favorite featured creatures as we keep adding more and more to this beautiful book!”
Solar Dragon by Tanyaporn Sangsnit
Wanna-lancer Reward Add-ons:
“Xenobiologist: Add $150 to select an existing monster from any published source; your monster automatically gets added to the Alien Bestiary and converted for Starfinder and 5th Edition rules. We can’t duplicate creatures from non-OGL sources, like 2nd Edition space-fantasy games involving a Jammer of Spells, but we’ll work with you to create something awesome and evocative of the original! Your pledge includes a beautiful illustration to accompany whatever you create, and you’ll be listed in that compendium’s credits as a Xenobiologist and you’ll receive a high-res PDF (and high-quality print along with a print order) of your sponsored creature!
Join the Space Program: Add $200 to submit a Starfinder or 5th Edition character for one of the races in the Alien Codex (or any of the standard Starfinder RPG races)! Your character will be included as one of the standard NPCs for your chosen race, and your character will be beautifully illustrated. You’ll be listed in the credits as a Astronaut Adventurer and you’ll receive a high-res PDF (and high-quality print along with a print order) of your sponsored illustration!
It Came from Outer Space! Add $300 to help design a new monster for inclusion in the Alien Bestiary! Your name will be listed in the final compilation as a Space Spawner and you’ll receive a high-res PDF (and high-quality print along with a print order) of the monster you create!”
Ysoki Rogue by Arrahman Rendi
Egg’s Thoughts:
Monsters for 5e, Pathfinder, or Starfinder, and you can create a monster for it, and they have art like the Solar Dragon… I know my level of interest is through the roof! I believe that this does not need any more selling, you know if you need this in your library or not so here’s the link.
You can see examples of Legendary Games work at DriveThruRPG here.
“Another collection of one-shot 5E Dungeons & Dragons adventures, designed to easily implement into your campaign setting.
SideQuests are back!
SideQuests are a collection of short adventures designed for Fifth Edition Dungeons and Dragons. These one-shot style campaigns are designed to be compelling standalone stories that can be implemented, played through, and completed in just a few sessions. Whether you’re using them as a filler adventure between your own major story arcs, as one-offs to play with people unfamiliar to D&D, or just because you forgot to plan your next session, the second edition of SideQuests aims to be even more invaluable tools for your DM toolbox.
SideQuests II: The Covers
Each campaign comes with a variety of customization features: Adventure Hooks and Epilogues — so you can naturally ease your players in and out of each and every quest. SideQuests are designed to work in tandem with your own campaigns, so you can easily substitute anything within the modules for your own original content. Each volume also comes with a variety of role-playing, puzzle, looting, and combat scenarios, so players will enjoy them no matter what they personally value in a roleplaying adventure.
Every adventure module comes as a full-colour, beautifully designed PDF, as well as a more minimal print version: So you can either print the modules off, or run them digitally straight off of your laptop or tablet. Every module features stunning design, original artwork, and gorgeous photography.”
“Places by the Way #3: Secrets of Oyster Cove is a short location module for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition.
Welcome to Ramen Sandwich Press’ third Kickstarter campaign in support of Places by the Way. This campaign offers one last chance to pre-order copies of the Limited Edition of Places by the Way #3: Secrets of Oyster Cove.
Secrets of Oyster Cove
Places by the Way
For those of you who missed our first two campaigns, Places by the Way is a series of short modules that I’m creating for use with Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition. They work fine as short stand-alone adventures, but each Places by the Way module is meant to be a kit for creating a memorable interlude in a larger campaign. Each entry in the series consists of two versions sold separately but similar in content. One version is set in the Forgotten Realms, so Ramen Sandwich Press sells it exclusively through Dungeon Masters Guild. The other version assumes a generic setting and complies with WotC’s Open Game License. It’s available through DriveThru RPG, RPGNow and Dungeon Masters Guild, and a print version is available through Amazon and other online outlets.”
You can see examples of Ramen Sandwich Press work at DriveThruRPG here.
“An exciting 3-5 session adventure playable at any level for use as a side quest or part of a main storyline!
A town is beset by incursions from strange creatures; constructs of metal, magic, and old bones. All signs point to the mysterious Quartztoil Tower, standing tall over the mountains to the north, and thought long abandoned. Rumors of the magical secrets contained within have not gone unnoticed, however, and others are drawn to the tower by dark dreams, and darker voices…
Book Specs
Page Count: 50-60 Color: Full Color Binding: Perfect Bound Softcover Paper: Glossy”
You can see examples of Nord Games work at DMsGuild here.
Egg’s Thoughts for SideQuests II, Secrets of Oyster Cove, and Artifices of Quartztoil Tower:
SideQuests and Secrets of Oyster Cove and Artifices of Quartztoil Tower are one-shot modules for 5e. They’re meant to be insert adventures between a larger campaign. They all have a great deal to offer and could fill a hole in your campaign or, collectively, be your campaign.
I want to draw attention to Artifices of Quartztoil Tower because the art is amazing and Nord Gameshas produced some outstanding products. Top that off with a $10 price tag and it’s a winner!
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to DriveThruRPG.com.
* * * * * *
Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt orwall clock or ice tea glass!
* * * * * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
Check out John McGuire’s The Gilded Age steampunk graphic novel on Kickstarter!
Magic and technology colliding… that’s what we’re talking about here. An untamed wild where anything can be done and the only person stopping you from living your dreams is you. Take that smoke wagon from its holster and fire again and again on your orcish enemies. Dodge dragon fire while riding on horseback.
I mean, that’s what being in the Weird West is all about!
Kickstarter campaign ends on Friday, September 29, 2017, at 1:59 AM EDT.
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The Pitch
Westbound is a game of adventure on the frontier. You’ll explore the magical wild west, encounter other frontiersmen, fight strange new creatures, and strike gold or die trying. Robbing trains, shooting up saloons, and rescuing damsels is all apart of a days work for a Westbounder.
When the soil’s turned sour,
And the well all dried up.
When men in suits put a gun in your hand
And send you to war.
When there’s nothing left of your home,
But ash and regret.
It’s time to turn Westbound.
The Game
This Kickstarter is for the full version of the game, but they did put a free Basic version and a Quickstart adventure to “try before you back”. In addition, there are also a handful of videos to help walk through some of the basics.
Reading through those Quickstart Rules, the big idea here is that there aren’t any dice, but instead it uses a deck of 52 cards to help define your character. But more than that, it appears to combine some aspects of collectible card games in that “The Deck is Your Stamina”. As such, it appears that as you make your way through the day there is a tangible and very visual way to determine not only your health but the potential strength of a character through simple current deck sizing.
The free adventure, Triumph at Saint Kiaro is worth checking out as well. Not only does it provide some visuals as far as how the decks are laid out, but there are premade characters to let you jump right into things.
Final Verdict
Westbound is definitely a game that falls more within the Weird West genre than all the way in the Steampunk one, but, as with many things, I believe those aspects play off of each other fairly well. I love the fact that not only is there a Quickstart Guide available, but there is also a scenario to play through so you can really take the game out for a test spin.
One interesting idea with using a deck of cards as both your stamina and how you do checks is that as you proceed through the day, it might make sense not to take a rest if you have a bunch of higher value cards left in the deck (you wouldn’t want those lower tier cards suddenly showing back up in the deck). While there is some level of randomization even with what can get shuffled back into the deck, this creates a different sort of strain on your character – something not really available in dice games.
This is one of those games I’d like to play in person. The decks of cards make good reminders, plus I can see where if you were to do a campaign, you might have a specific “special” deck for each one (character accessories are always fun). Some of the stretch goals seem to lend themselves to this very idea.
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For more information on Westbound: Revolvers and Rituals check them out here.
John McGuire is the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. Want to read the first issue for free? Click here! Already read it and eager for more?
Click here to join John’s mailing list to learn about the upcoming The Gilded Age Kickstarter.
I first discovered Shades of Vengeance when I covered their Era: Hitman Kickstarter for my blog. The idea behind the game – “Be a super-powered assassin” – spoke to me because it’s charmingly action movie and engaging. Who doesn’t want to be the bad guy and mind blast someone? Discussing the article with Ed Jowett, owner of SoV, led to working on an adventure for him and we’ve stayed in touch since. When he launched Era: Balam, I knew I wanted him to lead my new RPG Kickstarter interview column. So, let’s talk Ed, SoV, Era: Balam and more!
EGG EMBRY – Thanks for joining us, Ed. If you don’t mind, let’s dive in – Tell us about your current Kickstarter campaign, Era: Balam? What is it about? Why should fans back it?
ED JOWETT – Era: Balam is the latest in our series of Era games, the seventh entry in the group. It’s a game which focuses on the theme of a pilot and their ship being an entity together. It provides exploration, and alien threat to fight against and the chance to save Humanity from invasion!
This game is also offering something new for us – a version in Era d10, but also one in FATE and one in Savage Worlds! You can choose which you prefer from the Kickstarter.
ED JOWETT – When Kickstarter launched their Project of Earth initiative for the anniversaries of the Voyager probes, I was inspired not by what Earth is today, or what kind of message I might send into space, but by what might happen to a probe when it arrived on an alien world. What reaction would aliens have to it? How would they respond to this thing appearing? I took that one step further – what would happen if it accidentally did damage to their society?
On the surface, that seems bleak, but while I wanted to make an interesting story, bear in mind everything that this implies – our probes reached other solar systems, travelling across the vastness of space and no matter what happened afterwards, it contacted an alien race for Humanity. Is that not what we all dream of when we send probes like Voyager into interstellar space?
Landing on Balam, the main Human colony…
EGG – How does Era: Balam relate to your other sci-fi setting, Era: The Consortium?
ED JOWETT – It relates in the sense that both originate with colony ships from Earth – the colonies in the system where Era: Balam is based are an offshoot of a main colony ship that was nearby.
The rules are extremely compatible, though, and Era: Balam offers one of the few things that can expand the Sci-Fi experience of Era: The Consortium – while the latter game offers space combat, it’s primarily focused around larger ships with crews. You can fly a fighter, but it’s not usually an even match and most of the larger ships have great point defence. In Era: Balam, you get the chance to conduct dog fights on a relatively equal footing with the aliens – huge fleets of fighters exist on both sides and it gives the chance to face a different sort of threat to what you’re likely to face in the Consortium’s region of space.
EGG – As the publisher, can you highlight one pledge level/backer reward that you think is the standout for Era: Balam?
ED JOWETT – I’d have to highlight the £55 or more pledge, “SPECIAL REQUEST – All the Sci-Fi Eras!”
I’ve had a lot of questions about Era: Balam and how it relates to Era: The Consortium. There’s a lot of possibility there for cross-play. It gets better – you get not only the physical of Era d10 Balam and Era: The Consortium, but you get the Definitive Edition Rulebook of Era: The Consortium, with loads of extra content, along with your choice of rule set for Digital Era: Balam!
It’s giving you loads of amazing stuff for just £55, along with the discount on retail prices on that entire bundle.
EGG – What inspired you to create the Era d10 gaming system? What makes it stand out from other RPG systems?
ED JOWETT – Era d10 was the answer to what my group and I wanted out of rules: I roll terribly, so I hate single dice systems. With Era d10 providing multiple dice, along with flexibility of matching any Attribute with any Skill built into the system itself, you both combat the “I roll badly” factor and min-maxing at the same time – a min-maxed character with no Intelligence could well struggle in certain situations!
It also provided a combat system, particularly around Brawling, that was playable to a greater degree than other things out there: any Brawl action can be described in a single-page flow chart.
I think it stands out because it’s easy to learn, extremely flexible and intuitive – everything works in the same way and once you know the core of the rules, it’s not hard to guess. I’ve had a lot of people comment that they could not find a rule so they guessed and when they found it later on a read-through, they were completely correct.
From Era: The Consortium
EGG – What was the game that changed you into a gamer?
ED JOWETT – A combination of things, but I’d probably have to say somewhere between Paranoia and World of Darkness.
Paranoia was the first game I played and then GM’d 2 weeks later. We used a non-standard rule set – not that any of the players knew that, of course (because, for anyone who doesn’t know, it’s against the rules for the players to know the rules in Paranoia…).
That got me into gaming, but what secured my attention – because the Paranoia rules we used was a one dice system! – was a World of Darkness homebrew we made which will be very familiar to anyone who knows Era: The Consortium. It was very much the predecessor of the game you’re playing today, created by those of us who were running a local 24-hour game!
EGG – Tell us why you jumped from gamer to publisher and created your company, Shades of Vengeance?
ED JOWETT – It was a friend of mine, actually, who convinced me to publish! I’d finished my first campaign and my brother wanted to try running one, so I was writing down the rules. Dru, my friend, was chatting and I showed him what I was working on. He said I should publish it, and things just spiraled from there!
Their reaction was fairly… extreme!
EGG EMBRY – Shades of Vengeance has completed Kickstarters for both RPGs and card games; are there any difference in how you run a RPG Kickstarter versus a card game Kickstarter?
ED JOWETT – Good question! The short answer is yes. The longer answer is that I don’t know entirely what that difference is and don’t yet consider myself as much of an expert on card game Kickstarters as I do on RPG ones…
I have a lot more card games in the works, so I expect to continue learning!
EGG – As a Kickstarter veteran, what advice would you give others thinking about launching a gaming Kickstarter?
ED JOWETT – Know your domain on Kickstarter. Know what the bottom end of projects get before you start, because that is where you will sit with your first Kickstarter. Don’t look at Seventh Sea for RPGs and expect to get that, look at the new people. That means scrolling all the way to the bottom of the Tabletop Games list and looking at those. Set a realistic goal for where you are at.
And, if you don’t know what you’re doing, get some help! One of the things Shades of Vengeance does is assist people with getting their games on Kickstarter.
Kurmaja Park remains the centre of the Consortium
EGG – What projects are you currently developing?
ED JOWETT – When I counted just recently, I realised I had 9 projects on the go, so I have quite a bit going on.
The next one people will see is the Era: The Consortium – A Universe of Expansions 2 Kickstarter. The last one we did funded 8 expansions to Era: The Consortium, but I had 26 ideas at the time. I’d like to get more of those out there, and I’m looking forward to the chance to do it!
After that, you’ll start seeing Era: The Empowered, our superheroes game, Era: The Chosen, our brand new horror game and Era: Legends, a Fantasy game, popping up. We’ve also got more card games, including a “sequel” to Champion of Earth, called “Evil Overlord”, Era: Survival Colony and one based in the Era: The Consortium universe!
We’ve got loads more on the way, including a matrix-inspired cyberpunk game, a JRPG-style game and a High Fantasy game. We’re definitely hard at work here, with an ambitious 2-year plan and a desire to see it fulfilled!
EGG – Any parting thoughts? Where can we find out more about Shades of Vengeance?
ED JOWETT – I’d like to thank Egg for his time and the chance to talk about the thing I enjoy most – gaming! There’s a lot more to come from Shades of Vengeance and I hope you’ll consider keeping an eye on us, because we’re doing great things.
To back their Kickstarter campaign for Era: Balam, click here.
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Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to DriveThruRPG.com.
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Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * * * * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
This week I look at RPG Kickstarters for two narrative/storytelling games, two games featuring anthropomorphic animals, one high fantasy game, and one game called SINS and in my mind, those numbers total four games. Let’s count’em down!
“Vanagard is a collaborative table-top story telling game.
When the world was young, the Vanir gods explored the world tree and established their home in Vanagard. Freya, goddess of life and death gave birth to her Vanfolk- anthropomorphic animals with amazing talents and unbridled curiosity.
The Vanfolk come in many forms: wolves, bears, ravens, rabbits, among many other shapes and sizes. Their home is known as Phantom-Wood and many memorable stories can be forged within this mystical glade.
More often then not, Vanfolk curiosity and wanderlust lure them beyond the boundaries of their home. As they explore the world tree Yggdrasil, adventure is sure to find them.
When faced with challenges, the Vanfolk collaborate in order to persevere. Their teamwork forges their legacy as one of the most amazing creatures to inhabit this brave new world.
To get more of an idea of the possible stories, you can visit: Vanagard Stories
Vanagard is a collaborative story telling game that utilizes some role-playing and board-game elements. At its core, it’s a game of exploration, teamwork and adventure.
2-6 players will take turns revealing story cards and weaving a continuous story that will take their Vanfolk on an unforgettable adventure. While one player weaves a tale inspired by the story card, the others will play their Vanfolk, overcoming the challenges presented. Each player at the table will get a chance to reveal a story card and will get to spin their portion of the story. If you like the stories of Narnia and Red Wall, this game is for you.
The simple core mechanics ensure that Vanagard is playable by a wide range of player, from age 7 to 77. There are 6 talents in the game, and they appear on both Nature cards and Talent cards. These talents are used to overcome the challenges presented in the scene. Runes are drawn to set type and difficulty of the challenge.
Players may create their Vanfolk characters as they play, ensuring that you can jump right into the action from the moment you open up the box.
EXTEND the game with new card decks. As the Vanfolk increase their level, add-on decks present a natural evolution to the rules. These add-on decks include magic items (relics), spells, profession cards and other goodies that evolve the Vanfolk as they embark on a series of adventures.
Add-on decks will also include new tools for the story-teller, in the form of challenge decks, story plots and many more interesting features. All of these are optional add-ons allowing you to tailor the game experience to your personal taste.
We will be uploading more videos during the kickstarter, so stay tuned!”
Egg’s Thoughts:
The art is fully human-anthropomorphic Watership Down featuring beasts facing the end times; their mission would be called a forlorn hope, but there is no hope – That’s the art. The game’s synopsis is not that dark, but these creatures rendered with thousand-yard stares evoke a world that has seen too much and is hurling toward its conclusion. There is pain and a tone that screams keep it serious and meaningful at the table and tell stories with gravity and that’s what Vanagard is, a collaborative storytelling game with elements of RPG and board games. As a system, it’s the gaming smorgasbord. As a setting, I’d love to tell tales that compliment the art.
You can see examples of Pendelhaven work at DriveThruRPG here.
3) Pythos Tabletop RPG by Star Lit Games
Ends on Fri, September 15 2017 10:00 PM EDT.
“Simultaneous action combat in a world of mythological fantasy, inspired by ancient myths and cultures from around the world.
Playtester Praise:
“I loved the ease of the system. Simple to pick up and use.”
“Straight forward and nicely balanced in complexity.”
“Really fun and unique.”
“Very simple and adaptable.”
“Great for a beginner to acclimate to a gaming system.”
“Having combat phases execute simultaneously lends itself to significantly more cerebral, methodical pace-making decisions; and larger, long-term plans are rewarded over spontaneous decisions.”
“Removes the ‘What is the optimal move?’ discussion from the table”
(On the topic of running combat) “It is very simple and straightforward to run. I was thinking ‘There’s got to be more to this.’ It is surprisingly easy.”
Pythòs is a high-magic fantasy campaign setting, but one shrouded in a mysterious veil of powers beyond mortal control. Gods are most certainly real, but their powers are limited and their ways unknown. Very few mortals can grasp their intentions, but everyone has their own beliefs. The practice of every form of worship (or lack thereof) can likely be found somewhere.
Even more terrifying than the gods, titans of colossal size and enormous power have existed since before the first dawn on Pythòs, longer even than the gods themselves. Many believe them to be physical embodiments of the forces of nature; their immense presence is only ever felt when they awaken from slumber for short periods of seemingly mindless destruction.
The people of Pythòs, referred to as mortals, are as diverse as the people of Earth. Mortals vary in size, features, skin color, temperament, and ideals; even more so with the existence of magic and mysterious heritages. There also exists vast cultural and technological diversity, with only a couple civilizations having discovered the strength of steel, while others having not yet realized the utility of iron or even bronze.
Much of this world was inspired by mythologies and ancient cultures on Earth. Some names of locations, peoples, monsters, gods, and titans can be easily recognized by those with an eye for history and culture, while other influences are more subtle. The result of this melting pot of ideas is a unique world where many mythologies come together to bring out fantastic stories of heroes and legends, war and magic, terrible devastations and glorious triumphs.”
Pythos Worldmap by Cornelia Yoder, http://www.corneliayoder.com
Wanna-lancer™ Reward:
“Pledge $500 or more
Legendary Hero
Contribute a legendary character to the Pythòs core book (see the full description in the “Rewards” section of the story for details), and everything included at the “Virtual Pythos with the Creator” level.
Includes:
Contribute a Legendary Character to the Core Book
Play Pythos with the Creator Online
Pythos Core Book
2× Set of Action Cards
Set of Maneuver Cards
Everything in the “PDF Package”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Pythos is a high fantasy setting and a new system that features simultaneous action combat. If you’re curious about the mechanics, they have a video on the Kickstarter that explains how they address action. If their system interests you, they have a wanna-lancer* pledge level that allows you to leave an impression on the game by creating a legendary character for the core rulebook.
*Wanna-lancer™ – A gamer that’s pursuing freelance RPG work. Some back RPG Kickstarters that offer rewards to create NPCs, spells, items, adventures, etc. in order to build up their resume, make contact with publishers, and learn what’s expected on assignments.
“A card-based board game for 2-4 players aged 12+. Expand the forest to gain progress and to bring misfortune for your opponent.
“One day, the Humans had tormented the Earth until it could take no more, and the Humans ended. Then the Voles created their civilization and disturbed the smaller things of the Earth until the Voles ended as well. Now the tiny creatures of the forest compete to find the artifacts and knowledge left by the fallen empires so that they too can mess it all up in their turn.”
In Vasty Wilds, players take on the role of a small forest creature chasing after objectives in an ever-expanding forest. The player who collects all her goals first wins! The variable setup of each game means the shape of the forest (the board) will be different with each playthrough.”
Clockwise: An arboreal squid, a confused messenger, and a brush quagga
Egg’s Thoughts:
Not a role-playing game or a wanna-lancer opportunity, instead I am reviewing Vasty Wilds because the art made me stop and stare. It has shades of Mouse Guard in its subject matter and palette. I’m a fan that owns the Mouse Guard comics and RPG so when I say that Chuck Stover’s art reminds me of the work by his fellow Michigander, David Peterson, I mean it as a compliment.
The art is enough to make me curious about this card/board game and I may buy it just to look at the check out the pretty pictures. If you love anthropomorphic animals and great art, click the link to the campaign.
“A narrative-driven tabletop Roleplaying game focused on telling the stories of powerful beings known as Nemissaries in a dying world.
At its heart, SINS is a narrative role-playing game, specifically focused on telling the stories of powerful entities known as Nemissaries – reborn individuals back from the dead with a wealth of mysterious powers, who have risen once more to fight an eldritch hive-mind of the undying, known as the Brood, in the post-apocalyptic ruins of a 22nd Century Earth.
For all its high-octane combat and supernatural forces, SINS is a cinematic game about choice, morality and the consequences which come from wielding great and terrible power in a world desperate for heroes and leaders. It’s also about embarking on life-changing adventures, battling supernatural horrors, and often, simply surviving life in an unforgiving world fraught with danger, where even the Nemissaries’ great powers won’t necessarily protect them.”
SINS
Wanna-lancer™ Reward:
“Pledge £150 or more
About $193
SINS – Shardwalker
– The opportunity to liaison and work directly with our writers to have an appropriated character of your own design put into our next book and first supplement – SINS: Manifest Destiny – as a Major NPC. This character will be worked into the lore of the SINS world, and fully illustrated in the book by our artist Will Kirkby. You will also receive a print of the original artwork.
– The opportunity to have one of our writers GM a session of SINS for you. We will liason directly with you to make travel and hosting arrangements for the game. Subject to travel costs and location.
– And more.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
SINS is a narrative game set in the post-apocalypse that features great art – that skull art is tattoo-tastic – and a wanna-lancer opportunity. Your character can appear in the book as drawn by Will Kirkby. If I backed this one, I’d have to tell the story of that skull.
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to DriveThruRPG.com.
* * * * * *
Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt orwall clock or ice tea glass!
* * * * * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
This week, I look at three amazing RPG Kickstarters. One for kids, one for 5e, and one with vibrant art that fits the angelic theme. Let’s count them down.
3) Gauntlets & Goblins by Ian Gibson
Ends on Saturday, September 9 2017 8:18 AM EDT.
“A Role-playing game for adults to play with kids. Simple and engaging.
Gauntlets & Goblins is the result of my nephew’s desire to play the kind of games that mommy, daddy, and his uncle played. I took the concepts of conventional RPGs and boiled them down to the absolute simplest form. As a result, G&G has all the essence of a full fledged experience in a package that a six year old can understand.
Gameplay: We use cards and symbols to make the game as manageable as possible for young players. Dice mechanics are simple, roll a set amount and count your successes. Spellcasting is a breeze with easy to grasp, conceptual spells like fly, enlarge, or disguise. Combat is engaging and exciting, but not overly threatening. If you run out of heart cards, you just fall down until it’s over.
Game will contain:
Four character classes, warrior, thief, mage, and cleric. Each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Equipment cards of three quality levels. Swords, spell books, holy symbols and more.
Magic item cards to enhance your adventuring experience.
Spell cards that grant you magic that can be used as much as you like.
You will work with us to create a magic item card for inclusion with the game. See the FAQ for guidelines.
You also get the physical edition of the game.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Gauntlets and Goblins is an all-ages RPG on Kickstarter with an option to create content for the game. Why am I sold? Because I writeall-agesgamereviews atEN World and I review RPG Kickstarters with wanna-lancer* rewards right here. This is the crossroads of “journalist” Egg and wanna-lancer Egg. Getting to design for an all-ages game would be awesome! Need more details? Try Dan Davenport’s Q&A with Ian Gibson of G&G here. You can find the playtest for G&G here. This is worth checking out!
*Wanna-lancer™ – A gamer that’s pursuing freelance RPG work. Some back RPG Kickstarters that offer rewards to create NPCs, spells, items, adventures, etc. in order to build up their resume, make contact with publishers, and learn what’s expected on assignments.
“Adventures worth winning for Fifth Edition, Swords and Wizardry, and Pathfinder.
Frog God Games wants your help in bringing to life 16 exciting and challenging adventure modules in the Quests of Doom series. Each adventure is already written and converted, and the maps and art are paid for – they only need to go through layout. After layout, they need to be printed, which is where you all come in!
Art from Quests of Doom 4
Each individual adventure was designed by a veteran author to offer a fun, exciting challenge to your players, and to easily integrate into your game world. If you prefer the Lost Lands Campaign Setting, each module includes specific location details and lore that fit seamlessly into the Lost Lands.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Fifth edition rules, first edition feel; FGG lives that ethos. It’s Frog God Games, you can’t go wrong. Their work and track record speaks for itself. If you have not experienced it, instead of reading my thoughts, try some of their work like the Sword and Wizardry Complete Rulebook at a suggested PWYW of $0.00 here. After you read that, it will make backing this 5e, Pathfinder, or Swords and Wizardry Kickstarter campaign an easy choice.
You can see examples of Frog God Games work at DriveThruRPG here.
A fully-realized Planar Metropolis, the City of Seven Seraphs will be a 300+ page full-color, hardcover gaming manual with exclusive content for the Pathfinder RPG system including:
Rich NPCs and Organizations: 14 Planar Organizations, the Parities, which focus on the core Dualities of the Multiverse. Each Parity will have its own story themes and mechanical support such as Archetypes, Prestige Classes, feats and more.
8 Distinct City Districts: Each section of the City of Seven Seraphs will be fully expanded with its own section in the book with plots, locations and mechanical elements to create a vivid tapestry of planar possibility.
Planar Mechanics: Dozens of Feats, Spells, and Archetypes to support the Parities and allow your characters to take on the powers of the planes both in the City and in the worlds Beyond.
Bestiary & NPC Codex: Dozens of foes and allies statistics for easy use in your planar games. Varied CRs from 1-20+.
Expanded Compatibility: Full Support for both the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Occult Adventures system AND the Ultimate Psionics system from Dreamscarred Press. Optional support for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Mythic Adventures and Ultimate series expanded rules (including vehicles, social combat and intrigue).
New Base Classes: The book contains new base classes, the Nexus, a veilweaving class which gains the ability to take on the mantles of various outsiders to allow PCs to gain the powers of the Planes, and the Shadewalker a traveler of the dark roads between. Could there be more? We seem awfully fond of 7s.
New Races and fresh takes OGL Classic Races: New races like the judow, and inevitable-spawn people influenced by kyton or the a fresh-look at the ceptu (from Epidemic Books Oathbound: Seven) a races of telekinetic invertibrates!
Campaign Toolkit: Rules for planar adventure, intrigue and advice on how the City connects to your existing campaigns and links them to each other!”
New Nexus Base Class
Contributor:
N. Jolly (Racial Design and Planar Mechanics): “N. Jolly is widely regarded as a hero by most, having been involved in numerous successful kickstarter projects including the Forest Kingdom Campaign Compendium and Spheres of Might. Known for his skill with mechanics as well as flavor, he’s a well seasoned writer who brings his own unique flair to this project in order to make sure it turns out ehncredible.” Patreon link.
Egg’s Thoughts:
This art! It’s Pathfinder, it’s an interesting concept, but it’s Vincent Coviello’s art that pushes it over the top! Follow the link and check it out, it’s worth taking a peak just to see Vincent’s artistic skills.
Also, N. Jolly is contributing to this project. I’m shouting him out for no reasons other than he’s a nice dude and his work on this product is going to help knock it out of the park and it leads to my signal boost below.
You can see examples of Lost Spheres Publishing work at DriveThruRPG here.
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to DriveThruRPG.com.
* * * * * *
Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * * * * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
A lot of good RPG Kickstarters get overshadowed by better known publishers or titles. Others, like third-party 5e or Pathfinder products, have to compete against a sea of competition. This week, I’m counting down eight [Good gravy!!!] RPG campaigns that deserve a look. Some of these offer wanna-lancer* rewards that are worth considering into if you want to build your RPG resume.
*Wanna-lancer™ – A gamer that’s pursuing freelance RPG work. Some back RPG Kickstarters that offer rewards to create NPCs, spells, items, adventures, etc. in order to build up their resume, make contact with publishers, and learn what’s expected on assignments.
“A modern day Roleplaying game where players create various types of magic users. Urban fantasy magic meets gritty crime drama.
Wicked Pacts – Grunt Archetype
Unknown to the general public, there are chaotic societies filled with magic, supernatural creatures, and other beings trying to establish themselves in the enchanted world and to promote their self interests regardless of the conflict that ensues. Meanwhile, many of the responsible magic practitioners do their best to shield the Ungifted from the reality of their existence to avoid a modern day witch hunt. It is in everyone’s best interest not to draw attention to their mystical world.
…
In Wicked Pacts players create magic users from various types of blood lines, from Pure blooded, half-blooded, Angel blooded, or Demon Blooded. Furthermore, there are a wide variety of magic training thus forging them into an archetype they can pick from in the game. Wicked Pacts features Talents, Complications, and a ton of Spells.
The game mechanics are designed to be fast and easy to learn, but not too easy it waters down the play and detail of the action. Wicked Pacts uses the regular polyhedral dice set and also what we call our Tarot Card element. Each character is linked to an Arcana card in a Tarot Deck. This card and many other cards can be used as fuel for the GM or the Player to affect various elements in the storytelling.”
Wanna-lancer™ Reward:
“Pledge $100 or more
Enchanter
For your pledge, you will be able to work with the creator to help design either a supernatural monster, organization or ultimate bad guy or adventure with full credit to your contribution.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
This is a new dice and Tarot Card combo gaming system that you can help fund. Or, if you want to create content for this setting/system, you can pledge to create a substantial element for it. You can write up an organization or adventure which could have an impact on the direction of this game. Their wanna-lancer reward gives you the chance to influence Wicked Pacts from the start.
You can see examples of The Polyhedral Knights work at DriveThruRPG here.
“The Lion’s Vault – Part 3 of the Fate of the Forebears adventure path for 5th Edition D&D and Pathfinder RPG.
Lion’s Vault is the third chapter of the Fate of the Forebears Adventure Path, beginning immediately after the close of City of Sands module. The players must now venture out into the desert wastes of the Mirrored Steppes to uncover the secrets of an ancient city in ruins. Characters must withstand an ever-present corruption that feasts on their will, while they race treasure hunters and bandits through trapped-filled ruins to find the corruption’s source, an unspeakable horror protected by an ageless guardian.
The 80+ page adventure is setting agnostic, but with original locations and written for both Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition as well as the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The module will take characters from level 9 to level 11 and brings them through three narrative acts of a story arc, yielding 10-12 sessions of play. It is the continuation of the second module of Fate of the Forebears AP, City of Sands, which, in turn, picks up after the first module, Domes of Ishaq-Zahur.
In addition to the module, there will be an opportunity to pledge for digital assets in addition to PDF and print versions, which will allow you to easily run it online through virtual tabletop as well as at your table.
The destruction and terror the Nartheneen scepter caused on the metropolis of Archensheen will mark the city for decades. But even as the warring factions of the city fell to its power, it was clear that its evil source came from somewhere. Following a trail of disreputable treasure hunters, it is learned that a long-ruined Nartheneen city in the wastes of the Mirrored Steppes was the source of not only that scepter but all manner of evil and corrupted artifacts.
A dark corruption lies beneath the Nartheneen ruins, tainting everything around it—and this corruption is protected by ancient guardians who will stop at nothing to protect their secrets. What extremes must the adventurers reach to reveal the Nartheneen secrets and what horrors will awaken when they do?”
Egg’s Thoughts:
This is the first of five RPGs that are for either 5e or Pathfinder or both (six if you count Starfinder since it’s akin to Pathfinder/3.5e). With that in mind, each of these 5e/PF adventures deserves a look because they all have something to offer.
You can see examples of 2CGaming work at DriveThruRPG here.
“The Mysterious Happenings at Furlong Down is an adventure landscape (mini campaign) for 5th edition D&D. It is for 4-6 2nd level PCs.
The Restless Dead
The Mysterious Happenings at Furlong Down is an adventure landscape (mini campaign) for use with 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons. It pays homage to early 1st edition modules such as Bone Hill, Sinister Secret of the Saltmarsh and Against the Cult of the Reptile God. It also draws specific inspiration from the following 1980s small press publications: Starstone by Paul Vernon & the Adventures in Tortured Souls Magazine.
There are at least 20 quests / plots / mysteries to resolve. There is plenty for the PC’s to do.
This Kickstarter is to raise funds to pay for editing and to add as much art, from the most excellent Jonny Gray, as possible. Some draft illustrations are shown.
This publication will contain:
A rural village to investigate, and save?
20 wilderness encounters to overcome.
10 site based adventure areas (with 11 maps), containing about a 100 dungeon ‘rooms’.
A random encounter table for the various terrains.
A table of rumour, worry and gossip.
A map for Hexploration outlining the ranges of the many foul, and fair, creatures that roam the land.
Total 32-36 page count PDF in two column format. Size 11 font. Approximately 20,000 words.
Access to an at cost Print On Demand.
Torbin, the Village Reeve, is a worried man
A call for help from a PC’s relative takes the party to the area around the village of Furlong Down. All is not well. A strange pallor has afflicted the village teenagers; farmers report sightings of dangerous beasts. The county was once plagued by a now destroyed vampire, but it still casts a shadow the village cannot escape from.
The half elf scout, Eldrin, brings ill tidings
The PCs should be 5th level by the time they have made the land safe once more. The adventure is suitable for a whole range of classes, and races.”
Wanna-lancer™ Reward:
Too many to list. They start at £7 (about $9) and let you create undead, sprites, warriors, and more.
Jared, Volunteer for the Village Patrol, is no match for the challenges ahead
Egg’s Thoughts on The Cruellest Mistress Of All:
I backed John R. Davis’ The Cruellest Mistress Of All Kickstarter and pledged for a vanity press reward. My pledge allowed me to get the adventure and the prequel as well as create and write a setting and NPCs. The reward let me write a location but John let me sneak in a pair of NPCs to enhance the flavoring. John was easy to work with, very open to my ideas, and offered a lot of praise (and may use the setting/NPCs in a future volume of his adventure path. That was a validating conversation). CMoA was a nice addition to my RPG resume and pleasant work experience.
For John’s campaign, I gave £15 (about $24 at the time). If I hadn’t pledged for that, I would have gone with the Forgotten Souls level (£14 or about $21) that included the prequel adventure, the adventure for CMoA and the gazetteer. My wanna-lancer cost was a pound or about $3 (all January, 2016 conversions and poor rounding). The adventure is fun, the art is solid, and my writing appears in the product. I count this as a win!
[UPDATE – 2017-08-29 at 13:23 – After I messaged John R Davis about this post, he emailed me about my CMoA submission –
“Hi Egg Thanks for the support One of your merfolk is pencilled in to become sea-dragon food in Part 4 of Keranow! Might feel a bit guilty about that now! regards John“
John cracks me up! Support his newest campaign here.]
Egg’s Thoughts on The Mysterious Happenings at Furlong Down. 5th ed Adventure:
Based on my experience with John R. Davis, this is an easy recommendation. I expect a great adventure, great art, probably some extras, and John is very open to including your ideas. The base cost is £5/$7 or you can create content for £7/$9. The extra cost is negligible and a great resume builder. I cannot recommend it enough!
You can see examples of John R. Davis’ work at DriveThruRPG here.
“Sometimes the greatest adventure in space is simply surviving the orders of your captain. Redshirts brings laughs to your gaming table.
Chief of Security, Mitzy Stuffington
Redshirts: Adventures in Absurdity (Vol. 1) is a Starfinder compatible Adventure Path, guaranteed to have your PCs laughing hysterically from one end of the galaxy to the other.
Critics have called it “The Office meets Survivor…in space.”
Unlike most RPGs which set up the PCs to achieve great heroic victories over threats to the very existence of the world, Redshirts is more a game of survival, as in can the PCs survive the ridiculous orders of the command crew. Redshirts is perfect for players wishing to emulate the tone of comedic Space-Opera settings such as Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Futurama, or Spaceballs. It parodies and builds upon popular Sci-fi settings and tropes, while building its own niche.
The final product will be between 100-120 pages, and will include 5 pre-gen characters for those that just want to pick up and play. It is available in PDF, softback, and hardcover (all in full color).
Redshirts plays like a combination of a Role-playing game and an improv comedy routine (always say “yes”), as the PCs run the crew’s most dangerous errands. Vol. 1 encompasses the first three “missions” and takes the PCs from level 1 to level 3.
Mission 1: The Terrible Tacos: When Captain Ginny wakes up after a weekend bender with an intense craving for tacos, she decides to send her newly arrived recruits on their first mission. Unfortunately for the recruits, the local Taco Galaxy is under deadly new management.
Mission 2: The Cheaper Cleaner: Stuck in a surveillance mission around a dying star, first officer Laisse Faire decides to save a few credits and send the PCs to pick up his dry cleaning instead of paying for delivery. He’s sure the quarantine around the planet won’t be a problem.
Mission 3: The Pirate Bonanza: When several important pieces of the ship’s engine go missing, the PCs are sent shopping at the local space pirate flea market with a budget of $0 and the Captain expecting change back. Can the PCs get the ship back in working order or will they end up swabbing the decks of a pirate ship for the rest of their days?
Redshirts: Adventure in Absurdity (Vol. 1) will include the following new things that can be used in any Starfinder game:
3 new specific settings (2 space stations and a planet) which will include statistics and maps.
6 new playable races including: Door-tu-Dorans, Plushians, Aggressians, Mongrels, Pointers, and Beardies.
15 new monsters/NPCs to challenge your PCs, each with full stat blocks and artwork.
Detailed backstory for the Confederation of United Nebuls, Terrestials, and Sidereals (The people who pay the PCs tiny salary). The name of this huge bureaucracy refers to the three types of creatures eligible for citizenship in the Confederation:
Nebuls (creatures born on non-human worlds or races without significant amounts of human DNA)
Terrestials (Creatures born on human worlds with a significant amount of human DNA)
Sidereals (creatures naturally born in space or difficult to categorize)”
Wanna-lancer™ Reward:
“Pledge $200 or more
Design an NPC
Backers at this level will work with the design team to create an NPC crew member that will appear throughout the Redshirts adventure path. This character can be of any race that exists or we can design a new one to fit it. The character will receive a prominent role in the overall storyline, and will have original artwork designed for it. This backer level will also receive front cover credit as a designer…
Pledge $500 or more
Design a mission
A backer at this level can work with us to design an entire 25-35 page mission including creating new NPCS, races, monsters, and a planetary (or space based) setting. Includes up to 5 pieces of original artwork based on your creation. Backers at this level will be credited in the front cover as a designer.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Paizo’s Starfinder was crazy popular at Gen Con 50 and sold out in seven hours on the first day of the show. Rumor at the con was Paizo brought 150% of the largest inventory they’d ever brought to a show. 7 hours ate that. Demos for Starfinder had hour-long lines even on Sunday. There is an appetite for Starfinder that Paizo and third party publishers are working to meet. That brings us to Redshirts: A Starfinder Comedy Adventure Path (Levels 1-3) by Happy Gnome Publishing. Launched with a 60-day funding period, this Kickstarter used its longer-than-normal length to ride the growing wave of interest in Starfinder and reach a wider audience. They’re developing a setting that lampoons Star Trek within the Starfinder setting. Interested in designing a NPC or an adventure early in the lifecycle of Starfinder? This campaign offers an opportunity to do just that. You can show off your chops with one of the hottest games in 2017.
You can see examples of Happy Gnome Publishing work at DriveThruRPG here.
“A role playing game adventure module for the 5th edition game mechanic. If you like Dungeons and Dragons this is for you. RPG DND 5e
Sample image from play test draft
Pieron was just another commoner until an encounter with a mysterious woman and a magical deck of cards changed his destiny. Now Pieron is seeking out stout companions to aid him in claiming his birthright, the Keep at Glenfallow.
Overrun by monsters a century ago, the keep at Glenfallow now lies in ruin.
Will you help Pieron face unknown peril? Would you dare to stand beside the future lord of Glenfallow as he struggles to retake what it is rightfully his? Can you forge the destiny of a newly minted lord?
A host of monsters stand between Pieron and his destiny. The malicious goblin chief lords over his subjects, and dark creatures stir in the catacombs beneath the keep.
Will you gamble your future on The Draw of Glenfallow?”
Egg’s Thoughts:
This is the third of five RPGs that are for either 5e or Pathfinder or both in this post. The Draw of Glenfallow is the first in a series from Sinopa Publishing LLC. This adventure is currently 48 pages and should grow a bit with maps and art. At $5 for “a PDF copy of the module, … [and] the Encounter Scale System printable encounter map pack”, the price is hard to argue with.
You can see examples of Sinopa Publishing LLC work at DriveThruRPG here.
“An epic adventure that explores themes of madness and obsession, of betrayal and consequence, and the hope of redemption.
The Mad God’s legacy continues to plague the Eternal City!
The Echo of Faith, a twisted spirit obsessed with atoning for her crime of deicide, plunges Anduria deeper into the darkness of the void. Her plans bring the unsuspecting citizens that much closer to the brink of annihilation.
Only a handful of souls are even aware of the coming darkness, and most of those cannot be trusted. The characters are all that stand between the city and utter ruin.
Having survived the mind bending energies of corrupt artifacts, the hungry predation of nightmarish creatures and the plans of sorcerers and devil worshipers, the characters stand on the cusp of understanding just how deep the crisis goes…
The continuing adventures begin to peel away the final layers to allow the players to see the bigger picture at play. All the hints and clues they have gathered so far begin to fit together.
“Sanitarium” (Adventure 4) details the fall from grace of the Healing Hands, an altruistic organisation that has been secretly harboring the divine corpse of the Mad God Aether. The acolytes are about to learn that the aphorism “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” holds truth, as their attempts to siphon off divine energies only accelerate the city’s woes, and that deals with infernal organisations never end well – for anyone. The city will never be the same.
As the dust settles, the characters, armed with knowledge of an arcane ritual that might arrest the slide into madness, must uncover why the city has been bled dry of much needed silver. “Seeking Silver” (Adventure 5) sees the characters uncover the oppression of a nearby mining community at the hands of evil forces and amoral merchants, and the seemingly unconnected events that are actually derived from the same source as the city’s troubles. They must confront a fallen ally and offer them one last chance at redemption…”
Wanna-lancer™ Reward:
“Pledge AU$ 70 (About $55) Pyromaniac
…the naming and description rights (and statistical input) on an NPC Hero or Villain that will appear in the “Seeking Silver” adventure (submission guidelines apply). Your creation will have bust artwork in the book based on your specifications.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Another option for the world’s most popular role-playing games, What Lies Beyond Reason offers an epic adventure. What’s the quality like? You can try the What Lies Beyond Reason Player’s Guide for free here. If you like it, they offer a chance for you to submit a NPC to the adventure and get the character drawn.
Also, let’s quote about…
“All of the products from the first kickstarter have received strongly positive reader reviews, but they have also been critiqued by Endzeitgeist a respected and impartial critic who is widely held to be the most prolific reviewer of 3rd party Pathfinder and OSR material to date, with a continually expanding catalogue. He has more recently added 5th edition material to his reviews. He has no compunctions about disassembling material and spotlighting its flaws.
All five products (6 if you count the Player’s Guide) were rated 4.5 stars or better (on a 5 star scale), with two – the Campaign Guide for pathfinder and From the Ashes (adventure 3) for both pathfinder/5th ed – receiving his personal recommendation.
This is a passion project for me – you will only ever get my best work. You don’t have to simply take my word for it, you can read the reviews here.”
You can see examples of Pyromaniac Press work at DriveThruRPG here and their free What Lies Beyond Reason Player’s Guide here.
“6 5th edition adventures within 2 story arcs & 2 supplements: Blood Hunter CR0-20 & 1st level Adventuring Days
Dimgaard
Welcome to the 20th volume of Dimgaard’s 5th edition adventures. Thanks for the consideration. If you want to see what a Dimgaard adventure module looks like, here is a sample (the first episode of this volume’s Tyranny in Purple). Also, here is the first episode of the Fey Secrets series.
In this volume we continue with Fey Secrets. We present episodes 16 through 18. We also continue with episodes 5 through 7 of Tyranny in Purple. As bonuses we have the supplement GLD21 Blood Hunter CR0-20 and DGS30 Adventuring Days I (for 1st level PCs).”
Wanna-lancer™ Reward:
“Pledge $100 or more
Sponsor
…Have a favorite PC that you would like to see become a permanent NPC — cool. If you have a reasonable idea, we’ll probably be receptive.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
The Dimgaard adventure path series is huge. Want to try the campaign guide for free, DriveThruRPG has it available here. Want to be a part of one of the longest-running (if not the longest) Kickstarted 5e adventure paths? Here’s your chance to be a part of volume 20. Have a NPC or another cool idea that you want to use to help build this world? Dan Hass Endeavors is open to your ideas.
You can see examples of Dan Hass Endeavors work at DriveThruRPG here and the campaign guide for free here.
“A tabletop roleplaying game with dice. Quick to learn for gamers of all experiences, Raids lets players tell the stories they want to.
What is Raids?
Raids is an immersive storytelling role playing game. I use that description because the focus should be on the stories that the players are creating, with the rules acting as a framework and a guide, rather than constricting them. That’s not to say that Raids won’t offer a challenge for veteran gamers- the base setting is a dark fantasy world, where you’ll need to think carefully about your actions or else you’ll find it very challenging.”
Wanna-lancer™ Reward:
“Pledge £70 or (About $91) Guest designer bundle
…PLUS- You will get to help design and name a creature OR a location that will be included in the rulebook with you listed as designer on the page, and receive an exclusive print of your creation’s artwork.
(Please note that we reserve the rights to make any necessary changes to the created creature or location, to ensure copyright laws are not breached and that it does not contain any offensive material.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
If storytelling RPGs are what you’re looking for, Raids offers a new system to consider. On top of that, you can create a creature or, exercising more of the creative-chops, you can create a location. The location could let you spread your wings a bit wider and add more to the world.
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to DriveThruRPG.com.
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Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * * * * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
August 19, 2017 – Higher Grounds released their newest tabletop gem! Modern Adventures is a Pathfinder-compatible game set in modern-day Earth. Modern Adventures brings the full feel of a Pathfinder game into the modern era. You’ll get everything you expect from a modern setting including computer hacking, firearms, vehicles and aircraft. You’ll also get all of the races such as elves, dwarves and gnomes in addition to some new, never-before-seen races available for play. Modern Adventures combines everything awesome about a fantasy game with the gritty, realistic feel of modern era play.
Gen Con 50 was an incredible experience! I’m looking forward to sharing the stories from it in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I’m looking at RPG Kickstarters with rewards that let you create content for them while expanding your RPG resume. Let’s countdown this week’s.
“Manastorm: World of Shin’ar – A new, full color, 500+ page Pathfinder/3.5/5e compatible campaign setting!
What is Manastorm: World of Shin’ar?
Manastorm: World of Shin’ar is a new, full color, 500+ page Pathfinder/3.5/5e Compatible campaign setting featuring 16 new playable races – each with their own unique Hybrid Class. It contains 7 new Prestige Classes, 10 expansive regions, pantheons, new spells, feats, monsters, and more!
The planet of Shin’ar boasts 10 expansive regions to explore, from dust- choked ruins to far off enclaves guarded by logic driven automatons. Manastorm: World of Shin’ar introduces players to the Manasphere, a bubble of radiation that surrounds the planet, given off by mana crystals found deep within the planet’s interior. The Manasphere allows those who can tap into it’s unlimited power to fuel fantastic feats of magic and wonder. Players will be able to create new magical items from mana crystals that allow the user to cast stored spells on themselves or others, as well as allowing spellcasters to renew spent spell slots. Players must be warned though, the overuse of mana crystals can result in Mana Poisoning, and eventual death and rising as a Mana Zombie.
The planet suffers from events known as Lunar Quickenings. The Dri-jen Moon, the smallest of the planet’s two moons, has an erratic orbit. When it moves close enough to the planet, the moon causes all mana crystal deposits within the planet to react wildly. Bursts of raw mana saturate the Manasphere and cause fluctuations in its behavior. During these times, portals to unknown planets and planes of existence spontaneously open all over the world, depositing countless people and creatures on Shin’ar.
The vast majority of the peoples encountered on Shin’ar are not native to the planet. Many races have migrated to the world during Lunar Quickenings and found themselves stranded when the event ended. Portals to other dimensions and planets can only function during Lunar Quickenings. The Manasphere does not allow the opening of gates or portals outside of Lunar Quickenings, and it has a way to punish those who try to circumvent this. These events last for an indeterminate amount of time. Some have come and gone in the span of a few years, while some can last over a millennium.
Lunar Quickenings allow GMs and Players to include all kinds of “homebrew” races and monsters. While Manastorm: World of Shin’ar will offer more than enough to begin to play wonderful and exciting adventures and campaigns, the Lunar Quickenings make it so anything and everything can be encountered on Shin’ar.
Terran Empire Publishing will be hosting competitions to include new races and monsters from fans into future products.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
I covered “Manastorm – A Pathfinder-Compatible Campaign Setting,” the precursor Kickstarter to this one, here. While that campaign did not make it, this one is going strong. With content for 5e, Pathfinder, and 3.5e, this offers a chance to create a NPC across several systems and another reward to create a NPC and have it drawn. As well, Terran Empire Publishing is planning to host “competitions to include new races and monsters from fans into future products.” It’s a Kickstarter and a company to keep an eye on.
“A revised full-color edition of the Stars Without Number sci-fi role playing game, with expanded material, new GM tools, and more!
The year is 3200 and mankind’s empire lies in ashes.
The Jump Gates fell six hundred years ago, severing the links between the myriad worlds of the human diaspora.
Now, the long isolation of the Silence falls away as men and women return to the skies above their scattered worlds.
Will you be among them once more?
Over the past seven years, Stars Without Number has sent thousands of daring heroes into the uncharted void. It has armed innumerable brave men and women with the tools they need to explore an uncaring cosmos and given bold GMs the techniques and resources to fashion vast sci-fi sandboxes of excitement and mystery. Light, familiar OSR rules have equipped readers with what they’ve needed to get straight to playing. More than that, the modular design has allowed thousands more to effortlessly strip useful resources for their own favorite games and systems. With its free basic version and dozens of additional resources and supplements,Stars Without Number has been fashioned to not only be fun, but to be useful to players around the world.
Yet now it is time to do more. Stars Without Number was my first serious effort at RPG publishing, the product of six months of fumbling with Adobe InDesign and a hundred dollars in stock art. It was an exercise of intuition more than artifice, and the years of practice and dozens of newer works I’ve written since that time have left me with the gnawing, constant awareness that I could do it better now. I know more, I’ve practiced more, I’ve thought more in the years since I first wrote it. It’s time to demonstrate that.
Stars Without Number: Revised Edition is an expanded, refined, full-color revision of the original edition. It adds more character options, more hardware, more ships, and more psionic options- but expanding the mechanical breadth of the game is only part of the goal. Just as importantly, Stars Without Number: Revised Edition is crammed with new GM resources, with new world tags, new adventure creation tools, and new support for sci-fi sandbox adventuring. And all the while, I’ve kept to my original goals of portability and modularity, so that GMs who want to use different systems or different settings can lift out useful pieces and use them directly in their own home games.
Don’t just take my word for it. Have a look at these takes on the original edition:
Stars Without Number continues the trend with over 2,000 backers so far. Want to try sci-fi but you’re not sure if you want it to be SWN? Try the Free Edition of the rules at DriveThruRPG. They look awesome!
Try out all of Sine Nomine Publishing titles at DriveThruRPG here.
“A world with mutations and long-forgotten artifacts. A world with sentient animals and plants. A world in need of saving.
This table-top role-playing game hearkens back to an earlier time when post-apocalyptic was meant to be fun. While some would describe it as “gonzo” we tried to create a setting that, while it may be full of bizarre characters, is a place where the characters need to fight to survive. This is a place where every decision can mean life or death, not only for yourself but your community.
WHAT YOU GET
In this 250+ page book you get the setting and a bunch of new rules and options for a post-apocalyptic world. This includes… [4 Races. 9 Classes. 27 Archetypes. 20 Backgrounds. 160+ Mutations. 60+ Artifacts. 40+ New Monsters. Starter Adventure.]”
Egg’s Thoughts:
This campaign includes a reward to create a NPC for the setting. That will let you experiment with expanded races, classes, etc that this campaign is offering. I’m curious about the mutations added to the 5e system and how they’ll balance out.
“160+ Mutations. In a world full of genetic mutations, there are many that alter what a being can find as they move through the world, not to mention the fact that almost every race starts out with a random mutation. They include such mutations as Natural Weapon: Antler, Carapace, ESP: Perceive Thoughts, Life Energy Transference and Create Sap: Acid.”
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to DriveThruRPG.com.
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Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * * * * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
Check out John McGuire’s The Gilded Age steampunk graphic novel on Kickstarter!
Is Edgar Allan Poe Steampunk?
We mostly know him from his horror side of things. Whether it is burying people alive or being driven mad by the guilty thoughts of our minds, Poe had a stranglehold on that part of his reader’s minds. But Steampunk? I honestly didn’t know. So I consulted the all-powerful internet for the answer and came across this article from Tor.com: Was Poe Steampunk?
Kickstarter campaign ends on Wednesday, August 30, 2017 at 8:51 AM EDT.
The Pitch:
I’ve often described this story as “Alice in Wonderland meets The Lord of the Rings.” And for those who are fans of classic literature like myself, I would describe it as “Homer’s Odysseymeets Dante’s Divine Comedy.”
The Story:
Edgar Allan Poe has lost everyone he ever loved and now he is losing his mind. Haunted by his wife’s ghost and his many literary failures, the poet tumbles into a fantastical world created by his genius…and his madness. This world called Terra Somnium is a nightmare region that merges his macabre literary creations and mythological gods and monsters of old, all hell-bent on stopping him from escaping the land of dreams.
John’s Thoughts:
As a writer, there are many times when you might want the things you write about to actually come true. It would be great to become the hero of some epic fantasy who slays the dragon and takes the throne. Then again, it is less fun thinking about it when you are writing about very horrific ideas.
And then watch them not only come true but pretty much try to kill you? That is right up there with Writer’s Block!
The Rewards:
The interesting thing about this Kickstarter is that there are only 3 Rewards: Digital copies ($5), KS exclusive printed edition with a pair of prints ($15), and the print book with a t-shirt ($25). So many times the talk is about appealing to as many people as possible with the rewards, but here MacPherson boils it down to the core… and as of this writing (with roughly 7 days to go) he’s more than tripled his asking goal ($3000+ vs $1000).
Perhaps the lesson is less is more?
The Verdict:
You get on the ground floor of issue 1 of the comics. The art is a nice mixture of cartoony and horrific… a perfect fit for this time of story.
If you are a lover of Poe then this seems like a complete no brainer.
***
For more information on Imaginary Voyages of Edgar Allan Poe #1 KS Exclusive Edition and Hocus Pocus Comics, check out their Facebook Page here.
John McGuire is the creator/author of the steampunk comic The Gilded Age. Want to read the first issue for free? Click here! Already read it and eager for more?
Click here to join John’s mailing list to learn about the upcoming The Gilded Age Kickstarter.
It’s Gen Con 50 this week. I’ll be in Indianapolis gaming, meeting folks, and continuing my quest to jump from wanna-lancer* to freelancer. As I’m headed out of the door, let’s countdown three RPG Kickstarters that you should check out.
*A wanna-lancer is a gamer that wants to become a freelance writer.
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3) Heroines of the First Age by Voidspiral Entertainment
Ends on Friday, August 18 2017 1:01 AM EDT.
“An epic fantasy tabletop RPG about the larger-than-life legends and the mythical monsters that lived at the dawn of time!
HFA is a tabletop role-playing game about larger-than-life monsters and the dawn of civilization. HFA is the intersection between monstergirls, RPGs, and myth & legend. It will be delivered in color printed glory and instant PDF downloadability.
Heroines of the First Age is Powered by the Apocalypse, which focuses on the actions, reactions, and consequences of the things the players do in the game.
Inspirational Media: Utawarerumono, Nibelinglied, Maoyusha, Wintersun, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Monster Musume, Conan the Barbarian, Beowulf, Kobayashi chi no Maid Dragon, Black God’s Kiss, Everyday Life with Monstergirls, The Iliad, 12 Beast, Enuma Elish, Monstress, Myth, & Legend.
The Broad Strokes
There are two main assumptions that Heroines of the First Age makes:
Monsters make up at least a portion of the civilized peoples in the world. The Player Characters are heroines and heroes drawn from these demi-humans. There may or may not be baseline humans, depending on how your group wants to roll.
This is the First Age. It is the dawn of civilization. People are just coming out of the forests and caves to create towns and agriculture. Grand armies are being assembled for the first time in history. The world is fresh, new, and exciting, and there’s so much of it that has never been explored before.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
They’re offering rewards that let you design a character, an archetype, and the chance to create a short story for their fiction anthology. “Story Commission – We’ll work with you to create a short story about a character of your choosing! It will be included in the fiction anthology PDF.” Want to publish a short story? This offer scratches that itch and adds to your RPG resume.
You can find additional products from Voidspiral Entertainment at DriveThruRPG here.
“Be part of the expansion of the beautiful realms of Mhodica and The dream World
Luminous Echo is a world containing ten years worth of lore, characters, artifacts, and amazing weapons by world renowned artist Wen-M.
Our first project on Kickstarter, “The World Compendium” showcases these beautiful arts as well as an outline of the two realms. The campaign was a huge success exceeding over 300% of the goal thanks to 500+ backers. We were also able to expand the book by 25% as well as introduce base stats for 3 popular RPG systems of the community’s choosing. (DnD 5e, Anima, and Pathfinder.) We also invited some of our most beloved artists to participate.
Since our first campaign concluded last year, the book has certainly come a long way.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
I reviewed the parent project to this Kickstarter months ago (here). The word for that Kickstarter and this one is “ART”! Gorgeous, evocative, detailed, and lovingly rendered art. It’s worth looking at just to drink in Wen-M’s stunning work.
In this Kickstarter, the vanity press reward allows you to design a weapon and a short story or a character and a short story. Both are good rewards and resume builders, but the real win is Wen-M will draw it and you get a sketch. The art for this is gorgeous enough to make that beyond tempting.
“A tabletop RPG about rebuilding after the apocalypse, now funding its second edition. Tell your saga of rediscovery across generations!
Legacy Life Among the Ruines 2e
The World Before is fallen, torn apart by an apocalypse so extreme that reality itself was shredded and warped in its wake.
Your ancestors survived thanks to a combination of luck, preparation and grit, and now the time has come to leave their shelters and start rebuilding the world.
You soon find the wasteland has other inhabitants: families with different perspectives on the world, secretive factions with the own agendas, and bizarre monsters stalking the wasteland.
As generations pass and your family makes sweeping changes to the world, what stories will you tell?
The first edition of Legacy: Life Among the Ruins was one of the first wave of Apocalypse World-inspired games, bringing a grander scale to the post-apocalyptic genre. Three years down the line, we’re making a second edition that brings together all the great things from the first edition and makes the changes needed for the game to be the best it can be.
With your help, I hope to fund a beautiful print run of the game to end up in your hands and in shops worldwide. I also hope to fund some cool extras: Legacy-themed dice, upgrades to make the book even nicer, dry-erase playbook handouts, alternate takes on Legacy from other writers, and more!
If you’d like to take a closer look at the game, I’ve put together a quickstart. This document gives you a jumping-on point for Legacy, letting you try out the core game rules and pre-generated player options before breaking open the full suite of options available in the main book.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Artistically, this project delivers all the images you could want of the back-of-the-figure-standing-defiantly-before-the-post-apocalypse-landscape-art! Two covers so far and they both scream against-all-odds.
What’s the system? A version of Power by the Apocalypse. I had a chance to exchange a line or two on Google+ with Douglas Santana Mota who is working on Legacy. He shared his thoughts on the system, “We believe it’s a game that is poised to satisfy gamers quite outside the [Power by the Apocalypse] tribe”. It looks and reads strong. How do I know? Well, they believe in the project enough to offer a quickstart. Read it and I think this will be an easy decision.
What wanna-lancer options do they have? Create a character playbook, a family playbook, or your own apocalypse. Create. Your. Own. Apocalypse. The Purple Spaghetti Apocalypse. It’s an option.
You can find additional products from Modiphius Entertainment at DriveThruRPG here.
Why am I signal boosting my EN World review of Hero Kids? Because that’s a fun all-ages game and well worth checking out! Why am I talking about Shades of Vengeance‘s Champion of Earth again? Because Ed Jowett is a nice dude and, if you’ve been following my blog, that’s my kryptonite.
[DISCLAIMER] I am in the beginning stages of doing freelance work for SoV.
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to DriveThruRPG.com.
See you at Gen Con 50!
* * * * * *
Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * * * * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
Check out John McGuire’s The Gilded Age steampunk graphic novel on Kickstarter!
As a roleplayer, I’m always on the look out for games that I might get to play. Sometimes it’s because of the rule systems, sometimes it is because of the setting, and sometimes it’s just something that catches your eye. You know those games. The ones where you end up reading the sourcebooks cover to cover. You let your mind take it all in long before you ever break out a character sheet.
Kickstarter campaign ends on Monday, August 21, 2017, at 9:00 AM EDT.
***
The Pitch:
“1879 is FASA’s steamweird roleplaying game, that takes the place of Shadowrun in our cosmology. Due to a weird science experiment that opens a stable wormhole, Earth’s magic cycle gets jumpstarted in the late Victorian era, leading to a Gilded Age with elves, dwarves, snarks, and trolls. As the world adjusts to its new races, technological progress races forward, as the Age of Steam begins to give way to the Age of Electricity. Clockwork computers exchange data over telegraph wires, steam-powered airships chug through the sky, and industrial applications of magic churn out new wonders daily.
In the new world, the British army faces off against the Samsut, descendants of the Babylonians and Akkadians with their own Weird Science that allows them to raise the dead and use zombies as shock troops and skeletons as fire and forget munitions. The Saurids, the true native race of the Grosvenor World, aren’t happy about either Terrestrial civilization, and may yet manage to unite their fragmented tribes and create a second front.
Play it as steampunk corporate espionage if you like, or court intrigue, or lost world pulp adventure – yes, there are dinosaurs!
Adventure awaits!”
The Game:
This particular Kickstarter is actually for Book 1 in The Akkadian Trilogy (Big Trouble in Little Soho) and/or the London Gazetteer (London, or The Haunted City). In addition, at a couple of the higher Reward levels, you can get both of those as well as the Players Guide, the GM’s Guide, and the GM Screen ($138 and up).
Big Trouble in Little Soho looks to be the big jumping off point for a potential adventure path. The basic set up is that there is a drug that grants “explosive strength”… and it ends up “in the wrong hands.”
“The book runs 96 pages, digest size, perfect bound, with a full-color cover and black and white interior art. Layout is complete; backers will receive immediate access to the galley proof.”
London, or The Haunted City is the breakdown of the city of London within the game. From the breakdown, it details the every piece of the city, with potential adventure hooks when the PCs decide they want to just wander around (as PCs always seem to do). Then there is a breakdown on the technology, the politics, and even the various criminals and activities they might… entice your players with.
In addition, you also get “a complete adventure, Baby Boojum, in which a kidnapping goes hysterically wrong.”
“The book runs 256 pages, digest size, perfect bound unless we meet our first Stretch Goal, with a full-color cover and black and white interior art. Layout is complete; backers will receive immediate access to the galley proof.”
Passenger Giffard by Yad Mui, vehicles artist
Final Verdict:
Since Steampunk kind of occupies this odd space where everything is potentially available to you within a band of a few decades (late 1800s…-ish), sometimes that isn’t enough to entice potential players. They are looking for something a little more than just (forgive me)… gears and corsets. They need a unique Divergent Point. They need to know why your world is more appealing than the next.
From the FASA Games website:
“The Silver Exhibition, London, 1876. Twenty-five years after the Crystal Palace Exhibition, another is held to showcase the technological wonders of Britain. An ambitious inventor shows off his device to view great distances, but something goes wrong and the machine explodes and vanishes. In its place is left a circular field of … something.
One year to the day of the incident, the field opens. The portal reveals a vast new world of great resources, wonders, and terrors. By 1879 the Empire has a foothold in this new world. A massive fortification named Fort Alice is established at the end of the passage, which has been dubbed the Rabbit Hole.”
So it is with great curiosity that in the 1879 setting we’re dealing with a pair of worlds… seemingly leaking into each other. Our world is on its way to steam power and technology booms while the world on the other side of the wormhole is one where more fantastic creatures and magic are accepted as the norm. A place where our world is the invaders but also potentially the saviors.
I love the idea that an adventure could start on our world and end up on the other side of the portal (or vice versa). That maybe things which work a certain way here might be upside down over there.
And the character roleplaying potential is there, cooked in the bones of this world(s). Do you want to play the fish out of water? Not a problem since probably half the time you’re not going to be on your home world. Want to learn magic? Want to see the wonders of this new technology? All of it is available to you.
Just pass through the Rabbit Hole.
***
For more information about 1879 and other FASA Games, check out their website here.
I love it when creators find a spot of history that very few people have decided to set up in and really make it their own. Here’s a book that not only does that but uses one of those pieces of North American history that doesn’t always get looked at in general, which creates a potential goldmine of ideas for the right person.
Kickstarter campaign ends on Thursday, August 17, 2017 at 1:39 AM EDT.
The Pitch:
Precolumbian America… The worlds of Vikings and natives collide in this full-color graphic novel.
The Story:
The Owl Tribe contains a single complete story which revolves around a hunt for a beast straight out of the native (and Norse!) legends. It is set in the time of Viking exploration of pre-Columbian America and features fantastic characters borrowed from the lore of native tribes while also drawing from Norse tales.
John’s Thoughts:
Years ago there was a movie called Pathfinder which dealt with Vikings coming to the New World. It’s one of those ideas that just clicks for me. So when I read the initial pitch for The Owl Tribe and it mentioned Vikings and the New World… well, that’s something I’ve got to see.
The level of detail in some of the drawings, the weapons or equipment… not only am I pretty sure those took some effort to do, but they really sell me on the realism side of things. These are people who are clearly passionate about this story and want to make it as authentic as possible.
The Rewards:
There are both the print and digital options to start. Then some art prints (which you should go to the Kickstarter Page to check out those if you do nothing else). However, for those who would rather make an appearance within the comic book, there is both a Single Appearance opportunity ($137 Level) and a chance to become a Secondary Character in one of the scenes ($242 Level).
But the one that is unique is the Art Commission where it appears you can have a One-Page story drawn up in this style. That’s a very cool opportunity that I’ve not seen in other Kickstarters ($320 level).
The Owl Tribe – Page 16
The Verdict:
One of the biggest things going for this project (aside from the material, obviously) is that this has already been completed. Especially with something of this scale: 100 page graphic novel with 56 of that being the story, that’s a good thing (nobody likes to wait for months and months if they don’t have to).
More than that, this book just looks like one you know you’ll get drawn into… or, at least, I know I will.
***
For more information on The Owl Tribe, check out their Facebook Page here.
The maze of a demi-lich, good dark elves, dark obelisk, mechs in space, and furries in space. Kickstarter is offering some variety in the RPG choices this week. Let’s count them down (and show some love to Battle for the Purple Islands and the Champion of Earth card game).
“Sound and Silence is a comprehensive setting guide and lore expansion for the HC SVNT DRACONES role playing universe.
Sound and Silence is the first setting guide to the HC SVNT DRACONES role playing game. This is a lore book, full of beautiful artwork, expansive stories, and detailed information about the HSD setting and the roles players can embody there. For Guides, players, and fans alike, this book is the quintisential reference for culture, setting info, and history that didn’t make it into the rulebooks.
Sound and Silence is a single book broken down into two parts:
Sound is the name of the lore compendium intended for everyone’s use. It contains story ideas, descriptions of corp activity, layouts of cities, details on agent interaction so you can flavor your characters better, and a descriptions of unique grottos and universities for inclusion in your stories. Players and Guides can both go through this book without worry of spoiling anything in-game. Sound contains over 100 pages of content and is a great way to inspire people looking for character ideas for themselves of their NPCs.
Don’t know what this is… Other than weirdly awesome!
Silence is the second half of the book, containing detailed accounts of many of the aspects left vague in the HSD core rulebook. Things like the origins of the Palemen, what’s going on with Earth, and who the Shadow Presidents are. It has large sections on the nature of Transcendent technology and what humanity actually found when they made use of Hydra. This book is primarily for Guides, to give them fun things to let the players discover through play. It’s about 100 pages long and includes stories and behind-the-scenes info that make for great hooks in large operations.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
This campaign gives you the setting for the HC SVNT DRACONES rules system. The art for this project is beautiful. For most fans, sci-fi anthropomorphic decides their level of interest. In space, no one can hear you meow. At the gaming table, no one judges you. (Save the GM… literally part of their job.) A good rule set and a fun setting – like Sound and Silence appears to be – are going to go far toward creating a fun gaming night. Well worth checking out!
You can find HC SVNT DRACONES’ core rulebook here.
“A richly-detailed RPG city campaign setting, the Druid Enclave from Dark Obelisk 2 has NPCs, Quests, lore, >100 maps, and much more!
TL;DR: The Value Proposition
If you’re looking for a richly-detailed, lavishly-mapped city campaign setting with plenty to do and see, Druid Enclaveis an outstanding gaming asset for any Pathfinder or 5E/Fifth Editiongaming context.
If you want to get on board with Dark Obelisk, or if you are playing any Pathfinder or 5Eadventure that involves any city or Druid context, and want a way of fleshing out some detail, this book will be valuable to you.
Art credit Jack Kaiser
What is This Book?
This product is a 300+ page full-color PDF and hardcover roleplaying supplement that will enhance any Pathfinder or 5E campaign in any setting.
The Druid Enclave will be a richly detailed hardcover gaming sourcebook, and companion to one of the most ambitious and massive indie RPG adventures in recent memory.
Finally, if you’re new to it, this campaign is the quickest, easiest, and best-value way to get on board with thousands of pages of adventure.
Creative Input Add-Ons
$75 Muse: Design a Character: Name, and help design, a character. Your character will be included in the book, and have custom full-color artwork associated with him/her/it. These Add-Ons will be limited to 5.
$125 Vibrant Muse: As Muse, but the character will have a persistent role to play in the greater Realm of Aquilae mythology and Dark Obelisk Adventure Path storyline. These Add-Ons will be limited to 2.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
I’ve mentioned the Dark Obelisk seriesbefore. This outing is more great fantasy material for Pathfinder. This project continues Infinium’s streak of beautiful art which is made all the more awesome because you can opt to design a NPC and have it drawn.
Want to sample some of Infinium Game’s work, they have several free products on DriveThurRPG here.
“A game ruleset designed to run a Sci-Fi roleplaying game in a variety of worlds. This game uses a d10 system powered by the apocalypse.
What is Sixty Mile Sky?
There was a need for a sci-fi role-playing game that did not downplay the lethality of space, but remained story-focused and gave players a variety of explicit mechanics to deal with problems in non-violent ways. This game is build to fill that need.
Campaign design in Sixty Mile Sky is structured to create episodic sessions that all drive toward a main goal. That goal may change, or evolve as mysteries are solved or allegiances shift, but there is always a sense of overall purpose.
Mechanically inspired by games like Dungeon World, Blades in the Dark, and Dungeons & Dragons, Sixty Mile Sky is a d10 based game, where classes are equipped with moves to help guide the story and create dynamic answers to conflicts.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
This is a relaunch of the Sixty Mile Sky Kickstarter with a lower goal (already achieved). Everything that I liked about the original campaign is still in place. Still using the Powered by the Apocalypse system, still offering the option to design a NPC, weapon, or tool, and still a game that plays more heavily in sci-fi. Well worth a look.
“An adventure for 10th to 12th level characters who embark on a rescue mission against a lich and his bewitched maze.
Are you a gamemaster looking for an interesting and challenging adventure for your players that can be completed in one session? Well, I have just what you want: Befouled Maze of the Demi-Lich is a fantasy role-playing game mini-adventure module designed for a band of 6-8 5e DnD characters of 10th to 12th level.
A common saying among the wise is “Curiosity kills the rogue,” but sometimes interesting possibilities seek you out instead of the other way around. And so it is with a party of adventurers who decide to veer into the forest to investigate some strange lights. They find a small shine inhabited by a old, wizened man in grey robes.
He greats the travelers and reveals to them, via a tarot card reading, an intriguing side quest: saving a demigoddess’ beloved companion, who was kidnapping by a lich named Ulsus Malachite and held in a bewitched hedge maze.
The party is a little apprehensive about contending against a lich, even if the undead fiend is in a weakened state, but the old man’s hint of priceless rewards for a successful rescue, including one heart’s desire, makes the endeavor seem worthwhile.
Of course, this maze will surely be full of terrible beasts and devious traps ready to destroy the unwary, but such is way of the adventurer. Will the party survive to claim the prize? And what exactly does the lich gain by this kidnapping? So many mysteries…”
Egg’s Thoughts:
This game was on my radar to review and then the creator, Joe Pearce, reached out to discuss the book. I was happy he did (it’s nice to hear from the creators, especially the nice ones).
I love the OSR look of the project combined with 5e guts. The adventure revolves around a maze so the wanna-lancer* options are unique – dedicate a bench in the maze that offers a piece of the maze’s puzzle. I dig that it’s an out of the box vanity press reward. Well worth checking out.
*Wanna-lancer™ is a gamer questing to become a RPG freelancer.
Want to sample some of Wyrmkeep Entertainment’s modules, check out their DriveThurRPG here.
1) Spire RPG by Grant Howitt/Serious Business
Ends on .
“Join the dark elf resistance against their cruel high elf overlords in this urban fantasy-punk tabletop RPG.
You are a dark elf. The touch of the sun burns your grey skin, and you hide from the light in twisting corridors, crumbling temples and the lawless undercity of the metropolis known as Spire. The high elves, rulers of the city, alien and capricious, allow you to live here as an underclass forced to beg for scraps.
Your religion, your culture, and your people are being destroyed all around you. You have seen your fathers, your mothers, your grandparents subjugated by the high elves, and you have had enough. You have joined the resistance: the ministry of Our Hidden Mistress, worshippers of a forbidden goddess.
You have sworn in blood that the high elves will fall, that you will destroy them through subterfuge, and insurrection, and terror.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Evil high elves versus good dark elves in a fantasy-punk world. The stylized art from Adiran Stone brings to life the idea of fantasy-punk with just the right amount of elves gone punk. Like so many projects, the art speaks volumes and this one puts me in mind of the setting.
For the wanna-lancers, their £165 pledge, Make a Mark, offers either an amazing deal… or they’re calling you a rube. You decide.
“You will be immortalised in the game as a hapless rube for the player characters to take advantage of, complete with a brief backstory and a suitably changed-up Spire name. We’ll work with you to make the NPC as gullible as possible (subject to final approval by the creators).”
Want to sample some of Serious Business’ games, check out their DriveThurRPG here.
Why am I signal boosting projects from Kort’thalis Publishing and Shades of Vengeance? Because they speak to the RPG/CCG fan in me, and [DISCLAIMER the First] I am in the beginning stages of doing freelance work for each of these companies, and [DISCLAIMER the Second] I have a small bit of material appearing in the Battle for the Purple Islands. Very excited about that last bit!
“The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence returns; OSR scenario of warring factions competing for dominance in a purple world gone mad.
The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence has done well as an O5R campaign setting. I’ve been asked countless times if I’m ever going to go back to the purple islands. Well, this Kickstarter is a resounding “YES!” to that query.
The purple islands (there’s three of them very close together, and are usually considered a single place) is an eldritch science-fantasy setting with gonzo sword & sorcery. Both books will be usable with any sort of Lost World, Mars, Dream Lands, Hyborian Age, alternate Earth ruled by civilized apes or menaced by dinosaurs and sleestak, or a world of savagery, super-science, and sorcery.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
I covered this (and praised Venger) last week, it says it all. Well, not all… I have a small bit appearing in this Kickstarter. I’m proud of that.
Love. Me. Some. Venger. Through RPG, I’ve met a legion of incredibly nice folks. Jeff Duncan, Dan Davenport, Dan Dillon, Ed Jowett, Nathan Tucker, Chris Helton, Justin Halliday, BJ Hensley, and so many more that I’m forgetting. They’ve all been welcoming and I could not be happier to know them. High on my list of RPG friends is Venger. He’s helped me with direction, published some of my work via his recent NSFW Trinity of Awesome Returns series – Stairwell of V’dreen, His Flesh is Key, and High-Stakes Q’uay-Q’uar – and always been open to helping me along the path to RPG freelancer. When he launched his sequel to The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence, I was happy to support it.
Why should you check out Battle for the Purple Islands? Because it’s unlimited budget grindhouse glory in the form of a RPG! It may be purple, but Venger creates some dark games!
Why should you support Venger? Because, if you’re like Egg and you want to create fantastic games, reach out to Venger on Google+ or at his blog. He has worthwhile advice (and books of advice) to share. He’s open and direct with what works and what doesn’t. He’s worth talking to.
In the first expansion to our fan favourite card game, new enemies join the invasion! Defend the Earth with brand new weapons!
Egg’s Thoughts:
Shades of Vengeance is offering the core card game and/or their first expansion for it. It’s everything and the kitchen sink sci-fi which looks hilarious. I’m looking forward to the game.
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to DriveThruRPG.com.
* * * * * *
Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * * * * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
This week’s RPG Kickstarters focus on games ripped from the darkness of space, the worst of human history, and the color purple. Let’s count down the darkest RPG Kickstarters going this week.
“A Deep Space Exploration box set for the new Traveller RPG, covering the Great Rift.
Welcome to the Great Rift, a mostly unexplored region of the Third Imperium universe close to the Spinward Marches and Trojan Reach!
This Kickstarter project is to create a brand new box set for the Traveller roleplaying game, detailing not only the sectors of the Great Rift but also providing a comprehensive guide to deep space exploration and the mysteries that can be found far from the shipping lanes.
You can download preview PDFs showing some of the content right here:
Two full colour, 96 page books covering Corridor, Reft, Riftspan Reaches and Touchstone sectors.
Two gigantic (28″ x 48″) two-sided, full colour sector maps.
The Deep Space Exploration Handbook, a 32 page book featuring all the rules needed to conduct deep space exploration, plus the specially designed ships needed to traverse the void.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
When thinking of darkness, Traveller has gone the extra parsec by producing black covered books about space. The mock-ups below are exquisite.
Are you a fan of Traveller? This Kickstarter covers the latest expansion for one of the original RPGs. The current edition looks slick and Mongoose Publishing believes in their product – they’reofferinga varietyof previews. Gamers that want a legacy sci-fi RPG can discern if this is for them or not from those samples.
“Contribute to help create a prestige edition of Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2 and help pick which Eras we include!
We have shared the world with monsters for millennia…
Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2 starts out presenting a chapter for each of six historical eras; each of which features two Chronicles of Darkness game lines which include Vampire: The Requiem, Mage: The Awakening, Hunter: The Vigil, Changeling: The Lost, and more! The rules in this book are compatible with second edition Chronicles of Darkness. Each terrifying time period and location is examined through the supernatural creatures that dwell there:
DARK ERA: The French Revolution (1789 to 1799).
Vampire: The Requiem and Demon: The Descent:
To the immortal Kindred hidden within the House of Bourbon, the old ways of monarchical rule and royal privilege seem as eternal as the endless stretch of their nights. As the first stirrings of the Carthian Movement take shape alongside disenfranchised mortals yearning for liberty, fallen angels seize this opportunity to tear down the Machine’s Infrastructure creating the penultimate struggle for survival. As the Revolution reaches its height and the Terror begins, the God-Machine’s wayward children wonder whether Hell on Earth might be within reach after all.
DARK ERA: The Great War – Western Front (1914 to 1918).
Geist: The Sin-Eaters and Werewolf: The Forsaken:
The Great War displayed humanity’s potential to commit to wholesale, ceaseless slaughter of their own species. In such an era, the Scar tears asunder, and the Beshilu rejoice in the mire of the Western Front. Meanwhile, soldiers who, by every right known to mortals should be dead, stand back up to rejoin the battle — or fight back against the Reapers stalking battlefields throughout Europe. Now, both werewolves and Sin-Eaters will struggle to coexist, do their duty, and avoid getting caught up in one of history’s deadliest wars.
DARK ERA: Light of the Sun – Europe (1600s).
Deviant: The Renegades and Mage: The Awakening:
Galileo. Kepler. Newton. On the heels of the Italian Renaissance, reason and belief clash at every turn. Scientific discoveries disproving heliocentrism are subverted and deemed heretical. Scientists, mages, and astronomers are arrested by the Inquisition, and their books are banned. In response, intellectuals on the brink of discovery turn to alchemy and the magical arts, and create deviants to defend their laboratories and universities. Not all in this age agree violence is the option, however, and worry the Church’s power is too strong to fight. What’s more, no one expected the deviants to have a mind and will of their own.
DARK ERA: Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (100 to 50 B.C.E).
Changeling: The Lost and Promethean: The Created:
As the locations of the most significant manmade structures in the world are revealed, adventurers from Greece to beyond seek them out to bask in their glory. It is tragic, however, that some wonders must be kept secret. The Gentry do not respond well to their Hedge being disturbed, and the seven wonders are coated in thorns for the unwary. There is no telling what they will do when they encounter the Created, who have heard of these wondrous places immune to war, the ravages of time, and Disquiet. Though the Created seek to protect the wonders like a mother would a child, the Gentry have their own reasons for safeguarding them.
DARK ERA: Rise of the Last Imperials – China (1644 to 1911).
Mummy: The Curse and Hunter: The Vigil:
The last Imperial Dynasty, the Qing, was established following the takeover of Beijing. Masters of northern China, the powerful Great Qing successfully usurped weakened Ming rulers, but their rule was marked by their suspicious treatment of the Han Chinese. Despite this, the Qing emperors preserved centuries of Chinese arts and literature while searching for mummies rumored to be active in the area. Caught between the present and the distant past, mummies clash with Rival Arisen, sweeping Han Chinese hunters into their wake who must face many threats to uphold the Vigil.
One Thousand and One Nights – Islamic Golden Age (750 to 1258).
Beast: The Primordial and Vampire: The Requiem:
Aladdin. Scheherazade. Ali Baba. Sinbad. During the Islamic Golden Age, great strides in economic development and scientific knowledge occurred throughout the Islamic world and, at the same time, the tales of Scheherazade expose the wonders of magic to all. In this gilded era of human achievement, Kindred and the Begotten join forces to stay at the top of the food chain. Through their eyes, experience a thousand and one dreams…and nightmares. Who doesn’t like a good bedtime story?
Writing will begin on these chapters, as well as on any added Dark Era chapters once this Kickstarter is over. Having been through this process with the original Dark Eras Kickstarter, we believe this is the best way to create a strong set of Dark Eras for all of you.
Shepherding the writing will be developers Monica Valentinelli, Matthew Dawkins, and Meghan Fitzgerald.
If you are unfamilar with our Dark Eras books, here’s a chapter text sample from the first Dark Eras book, featuring Requiem for Regina, Vampire and Changeling in Elizabethan London: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7FqViticwNuUkhPaFpQY2I5eFE
Think of the darkest periods of human history then add vampires, werewolves, mages, hunters, demons, and more as chronicled by Onyx Path. That’s the level of darkness for Chronicles of Darkness: Dark Eras 2.
For the wanna-lancers* of the world, Onyx Path is offering an interesting opportunity with the “Dark Collaborator” reward:
“You will be brought into the inner circle to participate in the creation of either one of the Dark Eras 2 chapters or our next Chronicles of Darkness project as a Consulting Developer. You’ll be included on every communication between the developer and the writers from the beginning to the end of the project’s creation.”
Instead of the usual chances to develop a NPC or item offered during other Kickstarter campaigns, this reward allows you to work with Onyx Path on an entire chapter of this project or their next product. It’ll let you dive in and see all of the parts and learn from one of the most important companies in the gaming industry.
“A new edition of Gaslight Victorian Fantasy for the Savage Worlds game engine.
“Gaslight is certainly more of a sandbox game. You are given the world, the rules and then let go. There is no over arching plot or theme like Rippers or Ghosts of Albion. It is, in feel, much closer to the old Ravenloft: Masque of the Red Death game. Which is pretty cool.” – Timothy Brannan (author of the Ghosts of Albion Role Playing Game)
ENnie Award winning publisher, Battlefield Press presents its premiere Victorian setting in a new edition for the Savage Worlds game engine. Complete with a new cover by the talented Robert Hack.
Imagine a Victorian world, but not as history tells us it was, but as the literature implies that it was. Believe that the literature from the period were more than just stories, but instead first hand accounts of the events that happened in the world. Imagine a world populated by the lost boys of JM Barrie, the Beast Men of Dr. Moreau even tales of an immortal vampire named Dracula. Included in these are organizations bent of determining what is best for humanity, and they have launched a secret war against others so that only one will prevail.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Their cover is glorious! It feels like every ounce of the darkness of the Victorian genre distilled into a single image. I could see this on the cover of Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Are you ready for the pre-cursors to modern fantasy storytelling laid out for you to play? This amalgamation of powers and opportunities… this could be a glorious expansion to Savage Worlds!
“The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence returns; OSR scenario of warring factions competing for dominance in a purple world gone mad.
The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence has done well as an O5R campaign setting. I’ve been asked countless times if I’m ever going to go back to the purple islands. Well, this Kickstarter is a resounding “YES!” to that query.
The purple islands (there’s three of them very close together, and are usually considered a single place) is an eldritch science-fantasy setting with gonzo sword & sorcery. Both books will be usable with any sort of Lost World, Mars, Dream Lands, Hyborian Age, alternate Earth ruled by civilized apes or menaced by dinosaurs and sleestak, or a world of savagery, super-science, and sorcery.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Love. Me. Some. Venger. Through RPG, I’ve met a legion of incredibly nice folks. Jeff Duncan, Dan Davenport, Dan Dillon, Ed Jowett, Nathan Tucker, Chris Helton, Justin Halliday, BJ Hensley, and so many more that I’m forgetting. They’ve all been welcoming and I could not be happier to know them. High on my list of RPG friends is Venger. He’s helped me with direction, published some of my work via his recent NSFW Trinity of Awesome Returns series – Stairwell of V’dreen, His Flesh is Key, and High-Stakes Q’uay-Q’uar – and always been open to helping me along the path to RPG freelancer. When he launched his sequel to The Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence, I was happy to support it.
Why should you check out Battle for the Purple Islands? Because it’s unlimited budget grindhouse glory in the form of a RPG! It may be purple, but Venger creates some dark games!
Why should you support Venger? Because, if you’re like Egg and you want to create fantastic games, reach out to Venger on Google+ or at his blog. He has worthwhile advice (and books of advice) to share. He’s open and direct with what works and what doesn’t. He’s worth talking to.
Disclosure: This article contains affiliate links to DriveThruRPG.com.
* * * * * *
Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
This week, the Kickstarter gods rolled up three political [Editor’s Note – Using the term “political” is a stretch] RPGs that you should check out. Be a spy, be a rebel, or be a revolutionary! In this post we count down the latest political RPGs.
“Top Secret: New World Order is the all-new tabletop RPG by Merle M. Rasmussen, creator of the first espionage role-playing game in 1980
TOP SECRET: NEW WORLD ORDER is the brand-new espionage role-playing game by Merle M. Rasmussen.
You are an agent of ICON, the International Covert Operatives Network. Working alone or with a team, you are tasked with the missions that other agencies can not, or will not, handle.
TOP SECRET: NEW WORLD ORDER is set in today’s world of shadowy organizations, shifting alliances, high technology, and unpredictable threats.
What’s in the box?
The writers’ guidelines for Top Secret: New World Order are available now! Get them here.
The guidelines are for:
Writers interested in being published by TSR
Publishing companies who want to release products compatible with Top Secret: New World Order
Writers planning to self-publish
The writers’ guidelines will be updated from time to time, so always visit http://topsecretnwo.com/writers-guidelines/ to make sure you’re viewing the most recent version.”
Want some more details about the game from the Q&A session they did with Dan Davenport? Click here.
Egg’s Thoughts:
Top Secret, the 1980s TSR RPG of spies, is back! This version is by the original creator, Merle M. Rasmussen. Do you want to spy? If so, it’s waiting for you to check out the Kickstarter and sling some dice. That alone is exciting, but what makes this a victory for wanna-lancers – RPG fans that want to become freelancers – is the free writer’s guidelines. You have the opportunity to write on Top Secret for TSR Games or work on your own Top Secret content! With the free writer’s guidelines and a PDF of the core rules ($10), this is the wanna-lancing triple crown:
Work on D&D [Well, it’s not D&D, but it is one of TSR’s other hits, Top Secret!]
With Gary Gygax [or his sons, Luke and Ernie Gygax!]
At TSR [Sure it’s the spiritual successor to the original TSR, but it’s TSR!]
Who wants to be a tabletop RPG freelancer on TSR Games‘ Top Secret: New World Order – the espionage roleplaying game? This is the chance to fulfill that dream! You can find the link to their writer’s guidelines here.
UPDATE – 2017-07-25 17:00 – The first third party production for Top Secret has been announced.
“Louis Porter Jr. Designs (LPJ Designs) is our first third-party publisher to begin the approval process for officially licensed Top Secret: New World Order missions. http://www.lpjdesign.com/”
“Misspent Youth: Teenage rebellion in a fucked-up future! Play the only kids that can stop some asshole from turning the world to shit.
The game
Misspent Youth is a tabletop RPG about friendship, standing up to bullies, and changing the world. The game is for 4 to 6 people, one of whom plays The Authority, the force that’s making the world a shitty place to live. The others all play Youthful Offenders (YOs), the only ones who can redeem the future from this pack of assholes trying to fuck it up.
Ever wanted to play The Hunger Games (but focused on friends), Clockwork Orange (but with heroic droogies), Hackers (but less goofy), Mad Max: Fury Road (but, again, with teenagers), or Avatar: The Last Airbender (but sci-fi)? This is the game for you. It’s fucking awesome; if you want to see for yourself how awesome, check out the full text of issue 1.1 on my site, for free download.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Fight the system! Whether that system is the government or your GM, fight it! [Editor’s Note – Fight the GM!]
As RPGs go, this game ranks among the most meta. You are fighting the Authority and the GM is playing the Authority. It’s very on the nose as to how many tables role-play (players vs GM). There could be a year’s worth of Knights of the Dinner Table about this system.
For wanna-lancers, the cover fee includes a chance to game with Misspent Youth creator Robert Bohl online, or Pax Unplugged 2017, or Metatopia 2017. It’s like getting to jam with the band… but not because the bassist quit on the day of the show and forgot to tell anyone and you happened to have your bass in the trunk of your mom’s car… nothing like that…
“Revolutionaries is a tabletop RPG set during the American War of Independence, where history’s truths hide a secret war.
Travel back in time to colonial America and an age of high-stakes diplomacy and perilous revolution in this roleplaying game of colonial struggle for independence. Experience first-hand the gripping drama of the politics and the grim realities of the war and not only meet the founding heroes who helped a nation break free, but become one yourself.
In this storytelling game you make history come alive by bearing witness to the events that gave birth to a mighty nation. But before it was history, it was news. Tell your own story within the sweeping saga of the “shot heard around the world” and do something few games have allowed before: make the difference and change the course of history.
A front-row view of the revolution that changed the history of the world, Revolutionaries is the game every history buff needs to have in their collection.”
Want to create a revolutionary or a soldier or civilian from the American revolution? This game offers that vanity press option for you to write up a character that Make-Believe Games will weave into the mythology of the American Revolution. It’s an interesting offer.
For the game, I am curious how it will address the darker aspects of the founding of the United States? Slavery? Woman’s [lack of] rights? Native American genocide? The controversial nature of the Second Amendment? And, of course, zombies? [Several of the reward tiers bundle in the games I Am Zombie and Toxicity.] To find these out, I hope I can attend the online Q&A with the creators that Dan Davenport is hosting. If you’re interested in learning more about the game, check out Dan Davenport’s Q&A with Make-Believe Games on Friday, July 28th, 2017 from 20:30 to 22:30 Central Time.
“Overkill is a tabletop roleplaying game designed to make you feel like an action hero.
I have always loved action movies, since I was five and watching Indiana Jones and Star Wars. Though I haven’t loved roleplaying games quite as long, I started around 10 with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons and have been fascinated with them ever since. I’ve played through all sorts of other systems, and while any number of them allow someone to play out various action movie scenarios, none of them seemed quite perfect for it.
Overkill is a system designed from the ground up to be easy to get into, and it’s designed to allow for rapid generation of characters and enemies meaning it can be less than half an hour from picking up the book to starting your first game. To help with this instead of using various different dice, the game uses playing cards, any old deck will do. This allows it to be played in a cabin in the middle of nowhere, on a plane, or at the classic basement table.
* * * * * *
Bigger Bad – New Zealand Dollars $150
A game like this is full of examples, and at this level you get to put your own ideas into the game. Make up a character using the rules in the book, and even improvise a little bit if you are feeling spicy. I will then add your character to the examples at the back of the character creation section. You also get all the previous stuff.
Biggest Bad – New Zealand Dollars $150
Have you ever wanted to be a game designer? Well now you don’t have to. I will talk to you through whatever means you want, email, skype, phone, and we will collectively develop a custom path, or a few feats, or whatever you want. This is for the creatively minded out there who want to have their own devious mind gunk put out there for all to see. And of course you get all the previous stuff as well.”
Want some more details about the game from the Q&A session they did with Dan Davenport? Click here.
Egg’s Thoughts:
For those that want to develop content, Overkill offers a new game system and, in this Kickstarter, you can design a NPC and/or a part of the game mechanics. You’ll work with Joseph Barber to create this and be a part of the fabric of this game. It’s an opportunity to be on the ground floor of a new system and leave your imprint on it.
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
“Jodie Whittaker is a woman and the 13th Doctor.” The most controversial event of July 16th, 2017. It split the inter-webs into two opposed camps:
Greatest actor of her generation
The “D” in “Doctor” stands for “Dicks”
Jodie Whitaker composed as Doctor Who from Metro.co.uk
I chose the Greatest Actress camp before turning my mind to what possibilities a female Doctor will create for Doctor Who: RPG? Will this be doom or opportunity for Cubicle 7‘s game series? Before I get into the peaks and valleys of my speculations, let me offer some background.
* * * * * *
BACKGROUND
Example Page from Sword & Wizardry
Tabletop role-playing games are synonymous with sword and sorcery. With so many fantasy systems to choose from, companies look for ways to make theirs stand out. Frog God Games came up with an elegant way to ensure that the 3rd printing of their retro-clone, Swords and Wizardry, had the broadest appeal possible. They hired Stacy Dellorfano (of ConTessa fame) to lead an all-female design staff for the newest printing of their ENnie Award–winning game. What inspired this? Frog God Games shared this on their Kickstarter:
“…we were talking with designer Stacy Dellorfano about the fact that many OSR games have a physical appearance and presentation that really targets the 40 year old guys who’ve been gaming since forever, and doesn’t have nearly as much appeal to younger or female gamers of the generations following that first wave of players from the 1980s. In point of fact, old-school games, with their light-rules aspect and emphasis on a game master’s “common sense” interpretation of situations, are actually a really good tool for anyone who feels like rules-lawyers may be spoiling the game by trying to be over-authoritative or even overbearing with a GM. But if the appearance and presentation make the game look like it’s purely a throwback and not a modern tool for good gaming, then there’s a real obstacle to the game’s push into the mainstream gaming community.
As a result of this analysis, we engaged Stacy as a designer to produce an edition that’s no less appealing to older male gamers, while being MORE appealing to younger and to female gamers. Stacy put together a team, all women, to address this dual objective. We think her team has done an awesome job, and when you see the design results, we think you’ll agree.
…
This project came out of a discussion largely about how to get more women interested in OSR games, and evolved into a request to create a product that would appeal to all genders and challenge the idea of what an OSR game should look like. For many of the women who illustrated the book, this is their first foray into freelancing in the tabletop RPG industry. By participating in this project, we’re raising their visibility and adding more female voices to the industry.
What this is not is an “RPG for women”. This is Swords & Wizardry the same as it’s been for the last two printings, just with new artwork and layout for the new printing.”
Yet the naysayers say to me – “But Egg, can women – WOMEN?! – design the look of a REAL retro-clone?”
Absolutely, Mr. Naysayer! Stacy and crew produced an iconic S&W3e! Every page looks phenomenal and the book flows! This printing is beautiful. 1,213 backers on Kickstarter agree.
“But Egg, that’s the drawings! What about the… the writings? What about the WRITINGS, Egg?!”
Since S&W kept the existing writing with upgraded art, let’s look at a different project, Atlas Animalia by Metal Weave Games. This book covers the biology, game hooks, and more for monsters designed for 5e, Pathfinder, FATE, and more, including OSRs. This is a book of terrifying beasts to slaughter, or be slaughtered by, for your RPG of choice and there are no men listed as writers or editors. The project looks first rate (as the image below shows). I was excited about this campaign (I covered it here) and I was not alone, 798 backers pledged their money on Kickstarter.
Atlas Animalia example page – LAND SHARK!
“Um, well… but Egg, how do those numbers compare to games designed by mixed gender or ALL-MALE creative teams? Egg, I bet if we whip’em out and compare, the number of S&W 3e or Atlas Animalia backers on Kickstarter will be WAY smaller!”
Ok, let’s compare the number of backers for some retro-clones, monster manuals, and remakes on Kickstarter. I’ve picked out a few games that are close in nature to S&W 3e:
Based on this limited sampling (it’s not even close to exhaustive), S&W 3e had two to six times as many backers as the other OSRs in this list. S&W 3e had more backers than some new editions of older games/settings (Alternity and Scarred Lands) while not as many as others (Torg: Eternity and Scion).
While looking for RPG products that are, more or less, apples-to-apples comparisons with Atlas Animalia was more difficult. Still, there were a few:
257 backers for Ultimate Bestiary: Revenge of the Horde for Pathfinder! (a monster manual that’s the same book, different stats, and a different Kickstarter than Ultimate Bestiary: Revenge of the Horde! New 5E Monsters!)
Atlas Animalia fell into the middle of the range for these campaigns. If these lists (OSRs and monster manuals) were blended, Atlas would be on the upper half of the combined listing.
While this is a drop in the ocean of market research, I’d still hypothesize that RPGs created and written by women do well in the gaming market.
Do you think Frog God Games and Metal Weave Games made the right choice for their respective products?
END BACKGROUND
* * * * * *
Jodie Whittaker is the 13th Doctor and Cubicle 7 makes Doctor Who: Roleplaying Game. When it comes time to produce the Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space: The Thirteenth Doctor Sourcebook (2017-20??), should Cubicle 7 put a female lead designer/female writing staff in place to handle this project?
Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space: The Thirteenth Doctor Sourcebook (2017-20??) The first female doctor by [INSERT ROCKING FEMALE RPG CREATOR]
Jodie Whittaker as Doctor Who from DoctorWhoTV.co.uk
This is the opportunity to hire a heavily female (or completely female) staff to deliver this sourcebook. Frog God Games and Metal Weave Games had successes with female crews developing their products. There’s no reason to believe that a female Cubicle 7 team would not produce yet another AAA Doctor Who product. The serendipity-by-design of this would be the way to market it.
That said, while they’ll likely update the core rulebook to include the 13th Doctor in the near-term, Cubicle 7 releases their Doctor Who sourcebooks after the current Doctor passes the torch. We’re years away from the release of their 13th Doctor sourcebook. This debate has time for nuance.
As a company, they’re doing a rocking job with the Doctor Who RPG. As such, when I composed this article I hated to suggest that they mess with a winning formula. If they keep with their current creative teams, I know they will deliver an excellent product.
C7 has not announced their plans related to the 13th Doctor sourcebook and they should not until Jodie is ready to pass on the role. With the lead time that Cubicle 7 has on this, a company as competent as they are will gather together the perfect team to knock this out of the park! With their track record, I am confident they’ll make the best decision for their fans.
* * * * * *
SWORDS & WIZARDRY 3RD EDITION CHALLENGE!
Am I telling the truth about Swords & Wizardry 3rd Edition? Does it really look amazing? Can women design the look of a retro-clone? Why, yes they can, but you say you need proof, naysayer? The proof is in the product and the product is a single dollar in PDF format. Over at Frog God Games’ website, you can pick up the PDF for a buck and find out for yourself.
NOTE – When you’re doing the dropdown, it’ll say “-$33.99”. It’s confusing but you’ll see it’s one dollar at check out.
Frog God Games’ Swords and Wizardry 3rd Edition PDF
* * * * * *
Does S&W 3e and Atlas Animalia sound good to you but you wish there were a female-created board game? How about SPARKED: The hilarious and inspiring board game for women? A board game created entirely by women. 758 backers on Kickstarter.
* * * * * *
I’d like to thank every woman that ever gamed or created games or created art for games or thought kindly toward a gamer. You have made this world a better place. Thank you for all you’ve done for me. I cannot say that loud enough.
Sincerely,
Egg Embry
* * * * * *
Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
REVOLUTIONARIES FROM MAKE BELIEVE GAMES ON KICKSTARTER NOW!
MEDIA RELEASE
7th July 2017
Revolutionaries: Now on Kickstarter.
Washington, DC (07/12/17):
Make Believe Games is pleased to announce its latest game is now live onKickstarter. Revolutionaries is a tabletop roleplaying game set during the American War of Independence.
Travel back in time to colonial America and an age of high-stakes diplomacy and perilous revolution in this roleplaying game of colonial struggle for independence. Experience first-hand the gripping drama of the politics and the grim realities of the war and not only meet the founding heroes who helped a nation break free, but become one yourself.
MBG is pleased to have several amazing guest writers and artists involved as stretch goals in the kickstarter campaign. These include award-winning designers Owen K.C. Stephens and Matt Forbeck, as well as the dazzling cartography skills of Alyssa Faden.
Backers of the Kickstarter are also invited to participate in the Decipher the Code promotion! Decrypt and discover four pieces of Culper code over the course of the campaign for a chance to win a copy of Revolutionaries, the I AM ZOMBIE Field Manual, and Vampire: The Masquerade (1st ed.), all signed by Mark Rein-Hagen.
Become part of Washington’s spy network across the United States and throughout Europe. Conduct secret missions for the commander in chief and his senior wardens, Tallmadge and Hamilton. Help Benjamin Franklin recruit allies in France and other parts of Europe. Take the fight to the enemy and shake an empire to its very core.
“Support ConTessa’s mission of diversity in tabletop gaming by funding plush versions of our mascots!
For nearly five years, ConTessa has been changing the face of gaming through the awesome power of positive representation. To pay for all that, we sell ConTessa merchandise in the form of pinback buttons, magnets, lanyards, and t-shirts. Through these sales, we’ve been able to grow the program, allowing us to run bigger events at more conventions where we can reach even more people.
One of the most commonly requested forms of merchandise we’ve been asked for are plush versions of our adorable mascots, which we had commissioned years ago as illustrations for both merchandising and promotional purposes. Until now, that possibility was too expensive, but thanks to a combination of our growth, and the fine folks at Budsies, we’re finally able to offer up plush mascots – with your pledge!
We’ve set this Kickstarter up so we only have to sell 50 toys in order to create 100, so your purchase not only helps us create the toys, it also helps us build stock we can sell to fund our trips to conventions all over the US (and hopefully, someday, the world).”
Bea and Tessa.
Egg’s Thoughts:
Plush Bea-Holder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If this were QVC, you know my grandparents would already be dialing the 800 number! “I know lil’ Egg sure likes The Dee and Dees…” They’d get me Bea and Tessa plus the upsell fuzzy dice!
To get Bea the Eyeball Monster unlocked, this campaign needs to reach $5,000. Don’t let Bea down!
Ok, Egg, I love the plushes! But what do they have to do with your experiment? What can stuffed animals do for the wanna-lancers* around the world?
Glad you asked. This Kickstarter offers the opportunity to play a RPG with members of the gaming industry. This is a chance to put a face with the dice, so to speak. What better way to get to know someone than gaming with them? This is a golden opportunity to combine work and pleasure! The professionals and games are:
Senda Linaugh: Love & Justice (a hack of Lasers & Feelings)
Emily Morgan: All Outta Bubblegum: Attack of the Kraken
Pranks Paul: Star Wars Edge of the Empire: The Tail of Cat Bane
Ok, let me jump from what passes for Egg-humor to why this project is on my mind: These plushes are more than stuffed animals. They represent a real opportunity to help expand the gaming industry by making it as inclusive as possible. ConTessa is “…an organization dedicated to increasing diverse representation in tabletop gaming by running events led entirely by marginalized people, and enjoyed by everyone. We run our own conventions online, and attend popular conventions around the United States, bringing games, seminars, workshops, and panels using our innovative convention-within-a-convention format. We aim to provide open, inclusive, and safe environments that diversify what a leader looks like within our hobby.” This is for a good cause… whether that’s diversity or Plush Bea-Holder is entirely up to you.
*Wanna-lancers are RPG fans that want to be RPG freelancers. In Egg’s case, he’s building a resume of RPG writing credits by backing Kickstarters offering rewards like creating NPCs, magic items, adventures, and more.
* * *
2) Era: Hitman by Shades of Vengeance
Ends on Sunday, July 16 2017 6:59 PM EDT.
“Be a super-powered assassin – Era: Hitman, now in Paperback!
The much-loved super-powered assassin RPG returns to Kickstarter to bring you a printed Rulebook for the first time!
In this game, you are a hitman, an assassin who eliminates targets for anyone paying the right amount.
Whether your skill is stealth, approaching your enemies unseen, firing a bullet from a neighbouring rooftop, hacking automated defences or demolishing a building to eliminate everyone inside, you are always in demand. With the protection of the Guild, you need not fear retribution once you escape the scene of the crime – the scrubbers have your back. Every trace of you, every piece of camera footage, everyone who will testify that you were there will vanish without a trace.
All that falls to you is the kill itself and, in that, you’re an expert.
Pledge £30 or more
ABOUT $38
Client
You get to submit an idea for an assassination mission, which we will put into the list of backup challenges on the Shades of Vengeance website, with credit to you for the idea!
You also get the Physical and Digital Versions of Era: Hitman, along with the Digital Extras!
INCLUDES:
Create a Session!
Digital Rulebook
Digital Extras – Bonus Campaign and Extra Material
Paperback Rulebook
Name on Contributors List”
Era: Hitman
Egg’s Thoughts:
The concept for Era: Hitman is on the nose for RPGs are played – killing for cash. Maybe I’ve played at too many violent tables, but Era: Hitman’s lack of pretense spoke to me. Hack. All. Day. Long.
Perfect.
Building from that core, they’re able to seamlessly expand it with their wanna-lancer/vanity press reward, Client. The game’s about hitmen and in this reward, you’re the client and you create the mission. It is immersive and you can already envision the whole project from this reward.
“Samyaza is a table top role-playing game built to tackle a more technologically advanced world with magical and fantastic undertones.
Samyaza is a tabletop role-playing game setting using a mixture of cyberpunk, fantasy, and science fiction. The Samyaza setting spans from the years 1995-2230. I’ve built a setting that uses real world issues of today, what the 80’s thought the future would look like, and some fun twists to keep you on your toes. You will be able to explore the world’s newest marvel, Samyaza, the first city to take flight. Or, should you choose, fight on the ground in New York as the city rebels against it’s corporate overlords. You even have the option of exploring the new Martian front in the year 2230, as the “native” life pushes back. I wanted to create a setting that was flexible and allowed my imagination to really run wild.
I wanted to have the freedom to create whatever story I wanted and add any enemy without worrying about it not fitting within a specific setting. This brought me to Samyaza’s first campaign books, the Utah Saga. It’s a two part story built with cyberpunk at the helm but fantasy as it’s second mate.
“The year is 2079, our heroes find themselves in Salt Lake City, home to the mega corp The Church ™, a company that makes it’s money from the public’s fear of the after life. Just as the churches of old, this company has taken up the belief that God will forgive all of your sins, but for the right price. Yet there seems to be something more to them. They had been witnessed at recent sites which the news reported as comet crash sites, only to find that the news had been falsified and that the comets were, in reality, relics from the moon. Weapons made for the 1st Lunar War (2033), made of technology beyond their years. The relics seem to call out to the heroes, expressing a need to return to the moon. As the heroes look up towards the moon, they feel a shift in the wind. Maybe The Church ™ isn’t what it seems, maybe there are forces they don’t yet see at work fighting to change the very course of history.””
Samyaza Floating City
Egg’s Thoughts:
Samyaza is a new system and setting for a cyber-fantasy campaign. With this Kickstarter, you get that plus the opportunity to design a NPC, weapons, vehicles, cyber-enhancements, or a whole party. If you’ve been itching to make something for the near-future set, this may be the one for you.
For a fantastic Q&A about this game, visit Dan Davenport’s blog here. Dan hosts a range of RPG Q&As with game creators and they are a wealth of knowledge about the products.
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
Check out John McGuire’s The Gilded Age steampunk graphic novel on Kickstarter!
Welcome to the first in hopefully many Fridays worth of Steampunk goodness to come. My hope is to shed some light on the genre in any way I can possibly think of. Movies, TV, comics, novels, short stories, artwork, history, and possibly other bits and pieces I haven’t even considered yet. Since I write a Steampunk comic (The Gilded Age – the first issue is still available for FREE download here), it feels only right to reach out and see what others have done.
Kickstarter campaign ends on Friday, July 14, 2017, at 7:44 AM EDT.
The Pitch:
Sometimes all it takes is a word.
Word Smith is a steampunk fantasy adventure graphic novel. I always loved steampunk and it was great to put my own twist on it and write a story in this world. There’s dragons, airships, magical words and much more.
At the core of the story, it’s still a story about people, their emotions, dreams and ambitions.
The Story:
When one of Victoria’s words goes awry, she sets off on an adventure to try and get things back the way it was. With her dragon, Sparky will she succeed or make matters worse?
Word Smith follows the story of Victoria who crafts words. These words can evoke the emotion associated with it. For example, the word HOPE will give the recipient a sense of hope.
Sample pages from Word Smith. P.R. Dedelis – Artist and Peyton Freeman – Colors
John’s Thoughts:
Steampunk goes hand in hand with Inventors. Da Vinci, Tesla, Edison, etc. So the core concept of crafting words seems like one of those things that are obvious once someone else has told you the idea (as in – why didn’t I think of that?). And then having these constructed words become their own magic for people opens an enormous amount of possibilities. Not only could you possibly get a word that has an unintended effect, but what if someone else were to use a negative word for this purpose?
The artwork has a manga influence (if only from the larger eyes on some of the characters), and there is a playfulness at work here. Which makes sense if you are going to have a talking dragon as one of your main characters!
Oh, I didn’t mention that… yeah, talking dragon!
The Rewards:
For about $19 US (AU $25) you get a physical copy of the 55-page graphic novel. As you go up the levels, there is the opportunity for prints and original sketches ($60 US). And if you’d like to be immortalized within the comic, you can select the level which lets you “Get Drawn In” ($187 US).
What’s nice is that he offered some of these options as “early bird” or limited rewards for a reduced price. Never a bad thing to reward people for pledging earlier in the life of a campaign.
However, it’s the other option at that same level “Meet the Creator” which will interest those living in and around Sydney, Australia. Stephen basically opens up the meeting as allowing you to ask him questions, discuss projects, or pretty much anything else you might want to discuss. As someone who’s run a few successful Kickstarter projects, it could be very useful to pick his brain if you were considering running one of your own!
The Verdict:
I like the core concept and from the artwork he’s posted on the Kickstarter page, it has the feeling of a fun comic. I’m very interested to see where the story ends up.
***
For more information on Word Smith or Sigmate Studio other comic projects, check them out here.
Happy 4th of July! Because it’s Fireworks Over America Day [yeah, that’s a good reason] let’s count down three tabletop RPG Kickstarters that offer wanna-lancer opportunities (the chance to write on these projects, building your resume and demonstrating your skills so you can move from wanna-lancing to freelancing).
“Heroes build their legend and ascend to godhood in a mythic bronze age tactical RPG. Back as a creator to become a part of the world!
This heroic tactical RPG is set in a mythic land, a place where heroes build their legend in the pursuit of immortality and fantastic creatures inhabit the untamed world. The Lost Age is powered by a new class-free, skill-based system, with goal driven XP, dice-less GMing, and resource management-focused gameplay.
This is a new system so you can get in on the ground floor and show what you can do in a new environment. The art is the winner here. It’s pretty, pretty, pretty!
Wanna-lancer vanity press reward: Create a NPC, a monster, or an adventure for this new system.
“From the creators of the BabyBestiary, explore monster variants like you’ve never seen before! Includes statbooks for 5e and Pathfinder
Panda Owlbear – BUY IT!
Have you ever wanted to use a particular creature in your campaign but couldn’t because it would not make sense in the party’s current environment?
Well, look no further, for we have panda owlbears and a variety of other unique creatures for your next campaign!!”
Atlas Animalia – LAND SHARK!
Egg’s Thoughts:
They said “panda owlbears”! We live in times undreamed of! It’s cute AND it will murder kill your PCs dead! Adorable! Here’s the link, give them all of your money!
Wanna-lancer vanity press reward: These are already spoken for, but if one of them opens up you can create an adventure hook/legend and/or design a beast that will murder kill PCs across the world dead! Aim high!
“450+ ready-to-play NPCs and villains for Pathfinder RPG, featuring dozens of Archetypes, henchmen, rumors, and more.
TL;DR: The Value Proposition
If you play, or run, a Pathfinder game, this book will save you time. It’s as simple as that. Hundreds of detailed, ready-to-use PCs/NPCs and animal companions for a great price. Tons of high-quality, intricately-detailed crunch.
Not quite sure? Check out the free PDFDO1 Standard Pregenerated Characters for Pathfinder, a smaller collection of 46 characters that should give you a good sense of what to expect… times seven!”
Egg’s Thoughts:
450+ Pathfinder NPCs. Curious about the quality? They have a sample of 46 NPCs. Or jump in and back the full campaign because what GM does not need enough NPCs to literally populate a small town?
Wanna-lancer vanity press reward: Design a Pathfinder NPC.
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
Post-apocalyptic stories come in all shapes and sizes, but what they truly are about is the survivors. Like any good science fiction, they force the reader to ask questions: What if it was me who lived? What would I do to survive? At what point might it all no longer be worth it?
Kickstarter campaign ends on Thursday, July 20, 2017, at 10:08 AM EDT.
The Pitch:
At its core, Standstill is the bastard love child of the Americana survival horror genre and a romantic Greek tragedy. The dramatic table is set here in the opening chapter when you are introduced to Mason and Luna, two young people very much in love, but that love is going to be tested under unimaginable circumstances over the course of their story. I say their story because Standstill is big enough to sustain multiple storylines over time and that’s how I’ve been writing it. As it progresses from chapter to chapter, the story is visceral, emotional, and, in some cases, not for the faint of heart.
The Story:
Over 7 billion people live on planet Earth. What if 6 billion of them suddenly and inexplicably stopped moving – like toys that ran out of batteries. What would happen if the world came to a… Standstill.
John’s Thoughts:
The little blurb on the back of the book. The little bit of text where you have to put the idea out there enough so that it will catch someone’s eye. Simple, concise… everything I look for in a story. On the surface, it is the type of idea which could have just as easily worked in a novel format… but as a lover of comics, I’ll happily take what Justin Gray and Brox are putting out there.
Art by Brox. Standstill Issue 1, Page 1
The Rewards:
A couple of things popped out to me:
The digital comic is very reasonable at $3 and you get a copy of the script which, as a writer, is never a bad thing to know a little more about someone else’s process.
The physical copy at $5. Many comics end up charging far more than that even before shipping.
The ability to add a digital ad to the digital version of the comic at the $8 level. At the time of this writing, a small amount of money could get you in front of at least 225 backers where maybe something you write in your pitch becomes the thing which drives them to your story.
Art by Brox. Standstill Issue 1, Page 2
The Verdict:
Justin talks about the idea coming to him if he woke up and everyone else was paralyzed, waiting to die.
That is some messed up thinking… a man after my own heart. I don’t know where the story may end up going, or what the long-term ideas he may have already mapped out, but at least in the initial issue, I am all aboard to see what happens next.
***
For more information on Standstill or Justin’s other comic projects, check out his Facebook Page here.
Need a genre-crossing tabletop RPG system and setting? Want to read supernatural fantasy? Interested in a wanna-lancer opportunity or concrete steps to expand gaming? I’m counting down four Kickstarter projects that range from fantasy zombie apocalypse to samurai on motorcycles and all of them look awesome!
4) Triten Gaming System by David Prizio Ends on Thursday, June 29 2017 2:31 AM EDT.
“The Triten Gaming System is a fun and innovative new framework for tabletop Pen & Paper RPG’s designed to be simple and robust.
The Triten Gaming System is a whole new system of Pen & Paper RPG mechanics designed from the ground up to be both straightforward and robust, allowing for a relatively simple set of rules to work for an extremely diverse set of circumstances. The Fantasy Manual is the first version of the Triten Gaming System which is focused on medieval fantasy. Along with the manual, all you and your friends need are some polyhedral dice, pencils, paper, and your imagination!
Triten uses a skill-based structure instead of a level-based structure of character advancement. Individual experience points earned as a character progresses through the world can be directly applied to any of dozens of different broadly-used Skills and additional specific, individual abilities called Talents. Characters can also craft or purchase a wide variety of equipment and learn hundreds of different spells over 7 unique schools of magic.
This system has been in development for many years and has been though numerous playtesting campaigns with a diverse group of experienced Pen & Paper gamers who have dedicated countless hours to making this the best system it could possibly be. The manual is now complete and is in the final stages of editing, layout, and illustrations! We are confident that new and experienced Pen & Paper gamers alike will love this system as much as all of our playtesters have. We just need your help to bring Triten to market!”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Let’s start with this – David Prizio, creator of the Triten gaming system, is a nice individual. I was not aware of Triten until I met David through #rpgnet. We discussed my wanna-lancer experiment and he shared his Kickstarter that happens to have some vanity press options with it. For the wanna-lancers of the world, this campaign offers the chance to create a NPC using their proprietary system and have a custom illustration done. Immortalize your character at the ground floor of a new RPG. A lot of opportunity with this. But what is the Kickstarter for? Triten is a single system that will span a variety of settings. For the opening, they’re offering a fantasy setting. I recommend checking it out if for not other reason than David is a good guy.
3) Angelica Reigns #1 by SFC Ends on Thursday, June 29 2017 1:05 PM EDT.
“Angelica Reigns: The Faith is a 22 page, full color action comic about a young woman being hunted by an ancient religious cult.
What are you Kickstarting?
Angelica Reigns is the first solo series of the SFC Comics line. SFC is world of super powered sports entertainment. These solo series are a chance to get to know the characters outside of the ring.
The Story: Angelica is trying to establish a life outside of the shadow of her mother’s cult and Qakare’s power. She’s a young woman in a new city making new connections. All of that is put on hold when she becomes prey to a secret society called, The Faith. They are a faceless, timeless, and secret organization with roots that go back to the crusades. Their mission is to bring purity back to this world. They have ways to track and monitor dark magic.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Let’s do another guy post – Marcel Dupree is one of the most pleasant people in comics, and the writer of Angelica Reigns. If you float around enough Kickstarters, you’ll find some incredibly likeable people. Marcel is near the top of my list. He pinged me on Facebook one day to see if I’d look at his Delilah Blast #1 Kickstarter. I did and it sold itself. Since then, we talk here and there and I follow his comic wisdom and crowd participation insights. If you are interested in knowing how the sausage of indie comics is made, I’d suggest following Marcel on Facebook.
I could talk about Angelica Reigns but Tessera Guild-mate John McGuire already has here. Let me quote him:
“This one has the feel of maybe a Buffy style of story for Angelica. A young girl, fighting against supernatural forces bigger than herself, and, from the looks of it, has a couple of friends to help her on her travels. Consider me intrigued by the overall idea.
In addition, the work Federico Sabbatini is doing on the various images they’ve shown on the Kickstarter page are very nice, almost as if someone took a series of animated cells from a tv show or movie and put them on the page.”
2) Torg Eternity by Ulisses Spiele Ends on Friday, June 30 2017 9:00 PM EDT.
“The classic cinematic multi-genre RPG returns with updated rules, settings, full-color art, and a whole new Possibility War!
Torg Eternityis a table-top roleplaying game based on the original 1990 version of Torg created by West End Games. It has been re-imagined and updated for the Near Now.
The “High Lords” came from other cosms—other realities—conquerors joined together to steal the Earth’s living energy…to consume its very Possibilities!
Each Reality Raider brought his or her own reality, or “cosm”…
…from the dark fantasy of Aysle…
…to the technological oppression of the Cyberpapacy…
…the savagery and exploration of the Living Land…
…the diabolical pulp villains of the Nile Empire…
…the Gothic horror of Orrorsh…
…the action and intrigue of Pan-Pacifica…
…and the terrifying, demon-ruled wasteland of Tharkold!
The High Lords impose their reality and transform everything within, draining the Earth of its Possibilities in the hopes that one of them will become an ancient and all-powerful being called the “Torg!””
Egg’s Thoughts:
While this RPG does not include any wanna-lancer/vanity press rewards, it doesn’t have to, it’s Torg! A branching from the original Torg RPG (1990s), this Kickstarter is a re-launch/expansion with revised mechanics, yet they do not invalidate the previous meta-story of Torg 1e. Not only do they have 2e available, this campaign includes everything that was ever published for Torg 1e.
I picked up the Free RPG Day Torg Eternity quickstart. It’s a variation on the upcoming Torg 2e rules. Made without using any cards (they play a large role in the standard game), this version of the rules still gives a feel of how much potential this game has. It’s an interesting concept combining genres into a single world. If you’re looking for an in-depth view of this, I attended an online Q&A with Darrell Hayhurst about Torg Eternity and Dan Davenport has the questions and answers on his blog. Read about the game from Torg Eternity game designer, Darrell Hayhurst.
By the by, Dan Davenport is as nice a person as you’ll meet. Darrell Hayhurst was extremely pleasant during the Q&A.
“Fifth Edition roleplaying in a world ravaged by death and undeath.
The city is called Redoubt.
And as far as anyone knows, it is the last.
(map by Andrew Law)
Seven decades ago, there were cities upon cities.
Kingdoms and nations; the remains of ancient empire. Cultures at war and cultures at trade. Humans, dwarves, elves, and others. Magic and monsters, rare but real. And so it was for millennia, through two dynamic ages the lorekeepers and scribes called Ascensions.
Until the world ended.
Most call it the Fall, but whatever term a given people choose to use, it marked the time when everything changed.
When Green Ronin Publishing first discussed this product, it was in conjunction with an opportunity for women to freelance on The Lost Citadel. They didn’t talk so much about the product as what they wanted it to offer, greater diversity. I was excited about the possibility. More female representation in gamingeverything benefits us all. More gamers, more GMs, more stores, more designers, more publishers, more ideas. For me, this contest is the chance to expand the industry in a real way. Green Ronin is embracing a huge swath of humanity and gaming as a whole will benefit from it. To see Green Ronin, a major 3PP (third party publisher), do this is inspiring. And I want to say congratulations to the winners: Kate Baker and Anna Landin. [EGG’S NOTE – I wish I could continue the “nice person” theme of this article but I have never spoken with K. Baker or A. Landin. That said, I’m sure they’re outstanding people. They’re certainly keeping good company.]
Beyond that freelancer opportunity, this is a 5e setting/expansion. It seems like it will be a moody combination of The Walking Dead meets Attack on Titan. Last fantasy city in a zombie apocalypse. Tragic, hopeless, dark fantasy. This Kickstarter does an excellent job of conveying the feel of the product they’re creating. I am looking forward to reading this setting and the adventure that Kate Baker and Anna Landin are designing. And I hope to see more opportunities to expand the industry coming from all quarters.
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
For some independent comic book creators, Kickstarter is the way to fund their comics. Typically, Kickstarters have thirty days to reach their funding goal. If they fail, the creators heads back to the drawing board (but not to draw comics). With so much riding on those thirty days, how intense is it for the creators when campaigns do not reach their goal until the last three days? Or even the last day? What’s it like to have a Kickstarter photo finish?
To find out, I spoke with four comic book creators who had Kickstarters fund near the end of the cycle – Karl Kesel, Stephen Kok, Michael Phillips, and Pat Shand. They shared what they did to push the campaigns and reach their goal in the end.
* * *
Quick Bios:
Karl Kesel is a writer, inker, nice guy, and the co-creator of the 1990’s Superboy among many other accomplishments. He shares his experience with the Section Zero Kickstarter, which reached its funding goal with just hours to go.
Stephen Kok is a writer who has several comic book one-shots, all funded via Kickstarter, including Word Smith. He talks about the 5 Seconds Kickstarter that reached its goal with 3 days to spare.
Michael Phillips is the publisher of, and writer for, The Draconis Project and Grond and he discusses the path he took to fund the second issue of Grond.
Pat Shand is the writer responsible for the novel Guardians of the Galaxy: Space Riot as well as comics like Destiny NY, and Robyn Hood. He talks about his and Amy Shand’s Kickstarter for Clonsters.
* * *
Grond #2 written by Michael Phillips
Questions and answers from the frontlines of comic book crowdfunding
Q: What steps did you take to secure the pledges that put you over the top in the final day(s) of the campaign?
Pat Shand [referring to the Clonsters Kickstarter]: “You can expect big surges of support at the beginning and the end of the campaign so, to me, the way to secure yourself in the end is to keep support coming in during the middle of the campaign. If you’re near the finish line before the final day, you’re pretty much guaranteed to make it. To keep the campaign going and avoid slow periods, I consistently added new pledge levels and added freebies. I reached out to artists and other creators and, exchange for my support on their books, they offered me content I was able to give as extra incentive to backers. That way, even a low-level pledge of $15 would offer backers over $50 worth of content. It’s difficult for independent creators to compete with multi-million/billion dollar corporate publishers with market, but as far as content and value, the onus is on us to earn that support.”
Karl Kesel [referring to the Section Zero Kickstarter]: “HA! I did virtually NOTHING! The social media beast suddenly came alive and noticed us in the last 24 hours! I can’t explain it, really. The only thing I did was make sure to post a “countdown to zero” every hour so people knew time was running out (which I’m sure helped to some degree). But it wasn’t until I noticed the building momentum and thought “Hey! We might actually reach our goal!” that I offered some extra Superboy art as additional, high-end rewards. But really: I was trying to keep up with events, I wasn’t leading the way.”
Stephen Kok [referring to the 5 Seconds Kickstarter]: “I did another personal appeal to my mailing list. I knew quite a few people who were interested but have been too busy to do a pledge. It’s a reminder that there’s not too much time left. As Kickstarter is an all or nothing scenario, a last minute pledge could make the difference of whether a project goes ahead.”
Michael Phillips [referring to the Grond Book Two Kickstarter]: “I was always in contact with my backers and sent many updates to let them know how the campaign was going.”
Written by Amy and Pat Shand
Q: Hindsight being what it is, what would you do differently if you could redo the campaign?
Karl Kesel: “Two things:
A VAST majority of our supporters simply wanted The Book. The high-end rewards (art, appearing in the book) did very well (and were essential in us reaching our goal) but the mid-level rewards made very little difference. Next time (and there will be a next time) I will run a much more streamlined campaign.
When you’re doing Countdown posts, nothing makes you panic more than seeing people share things that say “7 Hours Left” when there’s only 3 hours! Or 2!!! Next time my “Countdown” posts will clearly state the exact time the campaign ends.”
Pat Shand: “Honestly, nothing. It was successful, and I learned a lot, which will make me more prepared for the next campaign. The thing about Kickstarter campaigns for independent comics is that every campaign is entirely different. You can ask for advice, you can learn all there is to learn, but the most important thing to understand is that you can never be fully prepared. Instead, you learn during the campaign and adapt to what you’re seeing every day. I would’ve loved to get funded 200% or 500% or some huge number like that, but I’m content with our 110% funding and learning what I did.”
Michael Phillips: “I would push for more time on social media websites. And I would also communicate with more creators and learn of new avenues to take to try to spread the word about my new campaign and how to get more backers.”
Stephen Kok: “There’s nothing I would redo but something I would add and do more things (launch party maybe?) to hype up the start of the Kickstarter. The beginning of a campaign is the key, a big start (lots of backers) will help push out the Kickstarter popularity ranking. It also takes the stress off the middle and end of the campaign if the target is on track early!”
5 Seconds written by Stephen Kok
Q: Since the campaign has ended, did you set up a Backerkit or webstore to continue to collect pre-orders? What are you working on now?
Michael Phillips: “I made sure that I had all of my stretch goals in place and utilized the MAILCHIMP email system to better communicate with my backers from my earlier campaigns and customers from the conventions that I have attended the past few years.”
Karl Kesel: “We are in the process of setting up a webstore at panicbuttonpress.com. I imagine we won’t be up-and-operational until mid-July, but if people keep an eye on the Section Zero Comic Facebook page, they’ll get the news as soon as the site goes live.”
Pat Shand: “On the independent side, I’m going on a book tour to support the publication of Destiny, NY Volume One this summer while working on production for Clonsters, which will be out in the fall. September 1st, I’m launching the Kickstarter for Destiny, NY Volume Two and will be pushing that hard. We’ll be publishing all of our Kickstarter books through my company, Continuity Entertainment, which I’m looking to expand on in big ways. We have a bunch of great books we’d like to publish, so the second half of 2017 will be focused on building that slate. On the freelancing side, my first novel Guardians of the Galaxy: Space Riot came out last month. In July, two more – Iron Man: Mutually Assured Destruction and Avengers: The Serpent Society – will be in bookstores everywhere.”
Stephen Kok: “I currently have a steampunk fantasy adventure currently on Kickstarter! I hope you have the time to check it out as well.”
In their own words, there is no single path to reach the finish line. Despite that, each of them achieved their goal and are able to make these amazing comic books! I appreciate them for taking the time to answer my questions. You can find out more about them at:
Note: the Panic Button web site is still under construction. You can find everything you need to know about this project at www.thereisnosectionzero.com
Are you trying to visualize the Kickstarter finish line? No need! Kicktraq provided these charts that show the last 10 days of these campaigns, their goals, and when they crossed them.
Grond 1 written by Michael Phillips
* * *
[Editor’s Note – Updated the information about PanicButtonPress to mid-July.]
* * *
Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
Demons, orcs, half-orcs, and a half-elf. Kickstarter offers some of the best fantasy and horror comic book options. This week, I’m counting down three winning comic book Kickstarters.
“Grond is now Kallok. Obberoth is dead. Valara’s fate is decided by Ugreth. Oublar is close to getting what he desires, being Mok’Dar.
BOOK THREE : PRESENT DAY
Obberoth is dead! A peaceful gift for a king turns out to be the death of him. Valara has been accused for the death of Obberoth and is outraged and is now fighting for her life.
Oublar demands Taurok, Juug’la of the clan to hold a clan trial for the sentencing of Valara. Oublar’s plan has now been set in motion. Only Mok’dar can grant her freedom.
But the oath of Rom’gara has been broken, and the punishment for that is DEATH. Grond is shocked to see what is about to happen next.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
FUNDED AND WORKING ON STRETCH GOALS.
Full Disclosure: I’m co-writing a comic set in the Grond-verse for Midcity Comics.
Do you have enough orcs in your life? No. No, you don’t. If you break out D&D or Pathfinder or Shadowrun or any tabletop RPG on the weekends, chances are you’re looking for more orcs in your day-to-day. Michael Phillips has you covered with the Grond series! A half-orc fighting his orc family! Orc-errific!
Grond is a half-orc and the son of a prince searching for acceptance among his orc brethren. Since these are orcs, they either accept him or plan to gnaw on his bones. Fortunately for the reader, they opt for bones and we get to enjoy the fights! This is a story of political intrigue, murder, and revenge. I’ve mentioned Grond severaltimesoverthe course of its campaign. I’m excited about the book! The stories are from the orc point-of-view… No one but Michael Phillips would do that. For his part, Michael embraces the world and the orc culture. It reflects in the brutality of his work.
This Kickstarter offers Grond #3 as well as the option to get Grond 1 to 3 and other Midcity Comics goodies. Michael’s completed ten Kickstarters, so this campaign and the production cycle are a science.
“”With a world divided, who do you turn to?” Niobe by Sebastian Jones, Amandla Stenberg, Ashley Woods, Sheldon Mitchell, & Darrell May.
NIOBE: She is Life and Death Campaign:
Get an oversized special Kickstarter Exclusive edition hardcover collection of NIOBE: SHE IS LIFE with 32 pages of extra material not contained in the retail edition paperback and a Kickstarter Exclusive version of the first issue of the sequel NIOBE: SHE IS DEATH by Jones, Stenberg, May and new artist Sheldon Mitchell. Be the first to read the book well before its in-store release next year.
While first introduced in The Untamed, Niobe’s solo story begins years later with the character as a teenager. A child of prophecy is on the road to fulfilling her destiny… Niobe: She is Life.
With a world divided who do you turn to?
Between two warring nations, in the heart of Western Ujoa, there is a haven to those who have lost their way. Some say you can rebuild your mind and spirit upon the mountains of Ugoma. For a Half-Elven (Sin-Galemren) girl with off-colored eyes, it is a chance to flee a dark past, and rest safely within the secret monatery of her ancestors. But you cannot run from destiny, or hide from the Devil.
Set within the original fantasy world of Asunda, Niobe: She is Life is a coming of age Beauty and the Beast love story threaded with murder and mystery that leads to all out war.
And the upcoming sequel… She is Death.
There is nothing more dangerous and beautiful than a wild woman.
Niobe: She is Death is a tale of hard truths and revelations for a young woman who is tired of running. Niobe has lost her faith – in humanity and the world around her. In the sequel to Niobe: She is Life, we will witness Niobe’s journey from heartbroken teenager to warrior woman, set to take on a world that would see her dead. Narrowly escaping a violent prison death, she learns that girls like her are being abducted. But the hunted becomes the hunter when she allies herself with a savage mentor who teaches her how to take vengeance on those who prey on the helpless – by being a bounty hunter herself.
Niobe: She is Life #4 – Ashley Woods Cover
Niobe will hunt down and capture human traffickers, rescuing the victims for the families who seek her help. But each step takes her further down the path toward a destiny she did not ask for and a burden she does not want.
Written by Sebastian A. Jones (The Untamed, Dusu) & Amandla Stenberg (Everything, Everything, Hunger Games)
Layouts and Concepts by Darrell May (The Untamed, Dusu)
She is Life: Illustrated by Ashley A. Woods (Lady Castle, Millennia War)
She is Death: Illustrated by Sheldon Mitchell (Cable, The Darkness, Vampire Hunter D)”
Egg’s Thoughts:
FUNDED AND DESTROYING STRETCH GOALS.
Niobe: She is Life is a beautifully illustrated graphic novel. Not enough good can be said about this project. The production values are second to none at Stranger Comics. Their books aren’t just comics, they’re art books.
The art. Ashley A. Woods: She [well, her art] is Life. What first pulled me into Niobe is Ashley’s visuals. Her designs captivate the reader even as they capture the spirit of the scripts she works from. The work she does as she weaves the world of Niobe into a visual cornucopia is staggering – it’s bright, beautiful, alien, familiar, and wonderful. For Niobe, Ashley’s work set the stage and made this a comic worth hunting down. But, don’t take my word for it, at the end of this article, I have several pages from Niobe featuring Ashley’s work.
The praise for the art is no slight to the work of Sebastian A. Jones, Amandla Stenberg, Darrell May, or Sheldon Mitchell. All of them bring their AAA games to the table. I cannot wait to have this book in my hands to take in all of the design elements poured into each page.
The campaign has several other graphic novels from the same universe available.For the RPG side of my life, it also has the Niobe Pathfinder book as an add-on. “Want to play in Niobe’s world? Pathfinder is making a 32 page supplement book for Niobe, allowing fans their first opportunity to game in Asunda.” Comics and RPGs? Perfect for lil’ Egg Embry!
“Untold is a horror comic series that combines psychological unrest, with striking visual gore, to create a truly terrifying experience.
Through a series of dark and twisted visions shown to her by a disfigured demon. Alice must attempt to separate fact from fiction, and unravel the truth behind her Grandpa’s decade long stay in the UK’s most notorious insane asylum.
After a short lived reunion with her beloved grandpa, Alice finds herself confronted by the grotesque demon, Daisy, and is soon plummeted into a dark, and twisted vision.
Issue #2 will introduce The Dark Figure, who we briefly saw in issue #1, as we delve deeper into his world, and discover exactly what he is capable of.
Untold #1 (28 page) was successfully funded in 2016, thanks to the amazing support from 146 backers. We are offering anybody who may have missed out first time round, an opportunity to grab a copy of issue #1 within this Kickstarter.
Untold #2 (22 page) is the latest installment within the Untold series.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
FUNDED AND WORKING ON STRETCH GOALS.
Cut off your nose to spite your face? With a demon, would that be for spite or for Clive Barker reasons? Untold’s monster is a demon child without a nose named Daisy. Two issues – one in the can, one to be created using funds from this Kickstarter – of demons and asylums are available from this campaign.While a comic book project, this series has the feel that horror RPGs strive for. Creator Daniel Farrand presents a horror world of dark visuals and scares. Backing this campaign offers the option to get both issues for a deeper inspection of the world he’s crafting.
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
Sometimes it is about the story, sometimes it is about the art, sometimes it is about the promotion, and sometimes it is about the whole package. The Angelica Reigns has a little bit of each… a comic I can enjoy and a Kickstarter campaign I can take notes from… sign me up!
Kickstarter campaign ends on Thursday, June 29, 2017 at 1:05 PM EDT.
The Pitch:
Angelica Reigns is the first solo series of the SFC Comics line. SFC is a world of super powered sports entertainment. These solo series are a chance to get to know the characters outside of the ring.
The Story:
Angelica is trying to establish a life outside of the shadow of her mother’s cult and Qakare’s power. She’s a young woman in a new city making new connections. All of that is put on hold when she becomes prey to a secret society called, The Faith. They are a faceless, timeless, and secret organization with roots that go back to the crusades. Their mission is to bring purity back to this world. They have ways to track and monitor dark magic.
John’s Thoughts:
This one has the feel of maybe a Buffy style of story for Angelica. A young girl, fighting against supernatural forces bigger than herself, and, from the looks of it, has a couple of friends to help her on her travels. Consider me intrigued by the overall idea.
In addition, the work Federico Sabbatini is doing on the various images they’ve shown on the Kickstarter page are very nice, almost as if someone took a series of animated cells from a tv show or movie and put them on the page.
From Angelica Reigns #1 – Art by Federico Sabbatini & Colors by Chiara Miriade
The Rewards:
A couple of things they are offering that are a little above and beyond what you normally might expect at such lower levels is a 30 minute Google Hangout with the writer of the series ($30 Level). I could see that being not only an interesting conversation to pick his brain for a bit, but maybe even gain some insight on further learning the craft of writing comics (if one was so inclined). At the $150 level in addition to print versions of the books, you get a 1 hour Google Hangout.
Many of the comic Kickstarters have the idea of “putting you in the comic”, but Angelica Reigns might be the first one to make you “a major character in Angelica Reigns 2-4” ($500 Level). I’m thinking that if you ever wanted to be the villain, but didn’t want to deal with all the jail time… this might be your chance!
From Angelica Reigns #1 – Art by Federico Sabbatini, Colors by Chiara Miriade & Letters by Brant Fowler
The Verdict:
Looking over the Facebook page, they’ve hit upon some interesting cross-promotion with a couple of other Kickstarters (The Untold and Knight), both of which are holding their own Kickstarter campaigns right now. I love the idea of Indy creators banding together to raise all boats as opposed to treating each other as competition. Let’s get those stories out there and told!
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For more information on Angelica Reigns or the rest of SFC comics, check out their Facebook Page here.
Sometimes (all of the time), wanna-lancing is about gaining the experience needed to become a tabletop RPG freelancer. Other times, it’s about meeting people in the industry. This week, I look at crowdfundings that offer one of each scenario.
“200+pp color PDF/hardcover with a wealth of magical items, each with quests, backstory, NPCs, and integration with the Dark Obelisk AP.
TL;DR: The Value Proposition
If you play Pathfinder or 5E/Fifth Edition, this book will be valuable to you.
On the fence? Check out the sample magical item, Abhorrent Naginata, available for free only during this KS campaign. It’s 10 pages of lavishly-detailed goodness, all dedicated to a single, nifty magic weapon. It’s a good example of what to expect… times dozens of items!
Obelisk-Shard Dagger illustration credit Jack Kaiser
This product is a massive, 200+ page full-color PDF and hardcover roleplaying supplement that will enhance any Pathfinder or 5E campaign in any setting.
Artifacts & Artifice will be a richly detailed hardcover gaming sourcebook, and companion to one of the most ambitious and massive indie RPG adventures in recent memory.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Infinium Game Studios is offering a free sample of the type of product that they’re developing through this Kickstarter. If you need major items for your campaign along with detailed backstories, related NPCs, and adventures, this has got you covered. Add to it, you can design a NPC related to one of those items or a magic item to appear in one of their two books or you can design both and an adventure. Lots of vanity press options. For these books, they’re a good mix of RPG crunch and wanna-lancing opportunity.
“I accidentally wrote a 5E fantasy RPG adventure! Wanna help me print it? This is a short campaign … it ends on June 11, 2017.”
Egg’s Thoughts:
Jamie Chambers wrote more on his GoFundMe page [UPDATED – This has moved from GoFundMe to IndieGoGo here. The GoFundMe total counts toward the overall total] detailing the experience of/reason for writing this adventure, not so much about the adventure itself. Let’s assume it’s a good dungeon crawl for 5e and it’s worth entertaining a quick inspection of it and its crowdfunding campaign.
From a wanna-lancing point of view, this campaign offers the opportunity to help craft a NPC and/or playtest the product with the creator. This offers the potential for face-to-face contact instead of everything between you and an established pro being type, type, type, type, type, type, and more type.
For Egg, there’s one additional opportunity here. While looking up Jamie Chambers, it turns out he lives a town or two away from where my humble home. One of the challenges of any type of entertainment freelancing is location. Live too far from where the wider professional community sits and you’re dependent on computer and phone contacts. Face-to-face causes some professionals/editors/publishers to become more invested in you as a person and creator. Human contact and all.
For my end, I live in Georgia, which has taken on a degree of prominence in the TV production world. But, for many other creative endeavors, it’s pretty far from where the action’s at. The potential to meet a local creator to network with is an opportunity to break out my rusty speaking skills instead of typing… Always typing. Will Jamie want to meet me? That’s CLEARLY not part of the crowdfunding campaign so I have no illusions that he’s dying to meet a dude named Egg. Heck, he’s not too far away, he may know some Embry’s and be feeling Hatfield toward McCoy, you know. Still, an interesting possibility of an “extra”. When looking at wanna-lancer opportunities, this is a bonus. The potential to meet someone in the industry outside of a convention is worth looking into.
My Tessera Guild-mate, Robert (Route 3) Jeffrey II, is still running his Kickstarter as is my friend and publisher, Michael (Grond) Phillips. I cannot recommend checking out these Kickstarters enough!
Route 3
Route 3 by Robert Jeffrey II and Sean Damien Hill Ends on .
“Centuries old prophecies. Shadowy government conspiracies. Super heroic action. Just a typical day for teenager Sean Anderson. Route 3.”
“Grond is now Kallok. Obberoth is dead. Valara’s fate is decided by Ugreth. Oublar is close to getting what he desires, being Mok’Dar.”
Catch up on the back issues and support the creation of the current issue on Kickstarter here – Grond #3
* * *
Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
In my experiment to jump from tabletop RPG wanna-lancer to freelancer, there are games and games and games that need to be read and played. It’s a tough job, but someone has to do it.
Every new game is a chance to learn or a chance to be awed. Today’s inspirational game is a find from the 200 Word RPG Challenge. Since 2015, the 200 Word RPG Challenge solicits game designers to create a full RPG using only 200 words. For the uninitiated, most RPGs can’t get across their full rules in 200 pages. Putting a hard limit on the number of words you can use to describe the game rules, and setting that number lower than a post-bankruptcy credit score, makes this difficult in the extreme. To design any coherent game with that word limit is an amazing accomplishment. Santiago Eximeno’s Memories doesn’t just answer the challenge, it offers a game that is an emotional roller coaster. That’s delivering so much in so small a package that I had to share this game and take my hat off to the creator’s accomplishment.
You are elderly people in a Nursing home. No one comes to see you anymore. You want to talk with others, tell them about your life, your dreams, and your memories.
Sit around a table. Get nine matches and an ashtray. Cut a paper sheet in nine pieces and write a word in each piece. These words are your conversation topics.
CHILD LOVE SPOUSE WORK FRIEND GAME TRAVEL GRANDCHILD HOME
One of you take a piece of paper and begins to talk about the topic in it. While speaking he lights a match and set fire to the paper in the ashtray. All of you talk about the proposed topic until the paper is consumed. Then a new elder takes another piece of paper and proceeds in the same way, but all of you have forgotten your memories related to the previous topic. You cannot use them in the new conversation. If the memories are necessary (for example, you must have CHILD in order to have GRANDCHILD), you must justify it in another way.
Finish when the nine pieces of paper have been burned —and, with them, all your memories.
200 Word RPG Challenge judge Brent Newhall called this game a “gut punch”. I’ve never played a game that crafts this amount of emotion through the rules. I’ve had emotional gaming sessions but the rules rarely drove the sentiment. The flames and the burning of memories while you are trying to maintain a coherent character and personality is a challenge that calls for a special kind of player. The frustration that the player experiences as they realize that they cannot use that prior memory because it’s gone evokes the exact atmosphere this game dwells in. Memories is a well-considered and realized approach to gaming in 200 words. It proves that amazing games are not just found in thick tomes, that the execution of the concept is what matters. Clearly, this would not be an easy game to play from an emotional point of view but one that may generate a lasting memory.
Santiago Eximeno’s website is here and find Memories on his website here. The 200 Word RPG Challenge, with more free entries to play, can be found here.
* * *
My Tessera Guild-mate, Robert (Route 3) Jeffrey II, is still running his Kickstarter as is my friend and publisher, Michael (Grond) Phillips. I cannot recommend checking out these Kickstarters enough!
Route 3
Route 3 by Robert Jeffrey II and Sean Damien Hill Ends on .
“Centuries old prophecies. Shadowy government conspiracies. Super heroic action. Just a typical day for teenager Sean Anderson. Route 3.”
“Grond is now Kallok. Obberoth is dead. Valara’s fate is decided by Ugreth. Oublar is close to getting what he desires, being Mok’Dar.”
Catch up on the back issues and support the creation of the current issue on Kickstarter here – Grond #3
* * *
Egg Embry, Wanna-lancer™
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
Want to expand your tabletop RPG writing and resume? In the process of broadening your horizons, do you want to create an alien superhero near-god? Want to make a monster with a wicked twist and have it drawn? Then these role-playing game Kickstarters offer just the opportunities for you.
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Opilan Destiny Rising
Opilan: Destiny Rising by Andrew Gillies Kickstarter campaign ends on Sunday, June 4 2017 9:01 AM EDT.
“A Superpower Tabletop Pen and Paper game with heavy mytho-scifi overtones. Prove your worth, become a God!
What is Opilan: Destiny Rising?
Intended to be a superhero pen and paper roleplaying game, this original idea has been taken to a new level, involving 12 distinct races (including humanity), a pantheon of 11 gods, and a galactic setting of intrigue and lore. The game is highly variable for Narrators (GMs) who want to have truly unique campaigns that cross genres and levels of technology in their campaigns. Mythos, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Superhero are all fair game in ODR. We wanted to make the game that we wanted to play and so we drew inspiration from our favorite games, movies, comics, myths, and stories into this original concept. Chances are if you want to make a character parallel to your favorite character from any media, you have that option. With an engaging system that grows in complexity as characters do, the pace of play and breadth of your adventure comes down to what kind of experience you want to gain.
The game utilizes a complete D6 (six sided die) system and builds in complexity at higher levels for characters in a natural progression which won’t bog down beginners. Central to the entire game are the Methods and Powers which make up the Origins of characters who are not limited to perusing only one avenue to true greatness. In order for players to feel like a superhero, and to further the sense of growing power, damage has a multiplier, specific to a character’s prowess. To accelerate character progression and further engage players, we added a means of gaining experience for each action performed without bloating the system. Incorporated into the system are rule-sets which can adjust the standard rules. These can be taken whole, or piecemeal, allowing a Narrator to tailor the game to their specific group of players.
Opilan Destiny Rising
Tier 6 to 8 Contributors includes:
Player’s Handbook – Hardcover
Beta Narrator’s Guide – PDF
Beta Story Arc – PDF
Tier 6 – Create a Character – Cameo ($50)
Tier 7 – Create a Character – Serial ($100)
Tier 8 – Create a Monster ($150)”
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Egg’s Thoughts:
The setting appears to mix religion and powers and sci-fi to create a universe of options. The gods provide some powers while technology provides others. The odd race out are the humans… What is this species origin? Evolution or divine creation or something else?
With Opilan: Destiny Rising, you get to work within a brand new role-playing game system and create a NPC or monster from a literal universe of options. It’s the ground floor of a new creative endeavor and the chance to go wild with a character/creature that does not have to be from the “logic” of our world, this is a winner! The possibilities make this a system worth checking out.
“Monsters supplement used with OSRIC or adapted to 1st Ed AD&D, 5e, DCC, Pathfinder, D20, Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry
Are you a DM looking for something offbeat and different than the usual monster supplements? Do you like our Maximum Mayhem classic old school dungeon modules with outrageous villains, over the top monsters and wicked encounters? Do you want some cinematic, fun, memorable, challenging monsters to coldly and callously toss at your players to crush and destroy them in awesome and humiliating ways?
If you answered “HELL YES!” to those questions then Maximum Mayhem Dungeons: Monsters of Mayhem #1 is the supplement for your campaign and adventures!
MONSTERS OF MAYHEM #1 is 32+ page SOFTCOVER PRINT BOOK or PDF ONLY BOOK of new monsters with stats, descriptions and lots of cool original artwork! This supplement contains dozens of new creatures written with the usual Maximum Mayhem style humor and wickedness with hit dice ranging from 1 to 14. These all can be played with the OSRIC system or easily adapted to AD&D, D&D 1e to 5e, Pathfinder, D20 System, etc or any fantasy role playing system you may want to use!
Example art for Maximum Mayhem Dungeons- Monsters of Mayhem
Pledge $75 or more
MAKE A MONSTER AND GIVE ME IT ALL!
You get to create a monster in the supplement! (pending Dark Wizard Games overall edits and approval) You will get the PDF file of our Maximum Mayhem Dungeons: Monsters of Mayhem #1 book and ALL FOUR of our previous Maximum Mayhem Dungeon PDF modules: Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen, Secret Machines of the Star Spawn, Villains of the Undercity and Vault of the Dwarven King! Each PDF module will also include the PDF rewards associated with the respective module as well! You will also get a poster size 24″ x 36″ PDF file of the front cover of the supplement and our PDF of SIX different classic player character sheet designs!
Their tiers above this also include monster creation.”
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Egg’s Thoughts:
Want to design a monster? Something twisted and worthy of the gaming table? Believe in yourself because you know you have one (or a dozen) of them in you… Hmm, that might be a real concern… Sorry… I shouldn’t judge your inner-internet-troll… Nevertheless, this is the opportunity to share it with the world! Design an in-depth monster and let the world see it!
ART! This Kickstarter is not shy about sharing their art and it ranges from cartoony to serious pen and ink. That’s a good choice on their part because this campaign stands out for its beautiful artwork that recalls superhero comic books and Frank Frazetta’s pencils and inks. It gives the products a unique, sharp look.
Maximum Mayhem Dungeons- Monsters of Mayhem
Because of their art, the sweet spot for this Kickstarter is the $125 pledge level – get the book, PDFs, design a monster, and they’ll draw it! As stellar as their art is, it’d be worth the extra money to see your monster fully visualized. Of course, that means you need to step up the visuals of your monster. No gelatinous cubes will work here. This needs to be a monster that is as visually scary as it is psychologically engaging at the gaming table and something that an artist will enjoy bringing to life.
Wanna-lancer™ Checklist T-shirt available at Cafepress
Interested in being a wanna-lancer? Start with the official Wanna-lancer Checklist t-shirt or wall clock or ice tea glass!
* * *
Egg Embry wrote comic book short stories, edited comic book series, wrote and drew a webcomic, and contributed to comic book journalism across the 2000s. Now, he buys the opportunity to write for a variety of tabletop role-playing games in the tradition of vanity press. His purchases have been published by:
“The Triten Gaming System is a fun and innovative new framework for tabletop Pen & Paper RPG’s designed to be simple and robust.
3) 
Do you have enough orcs in your life? No. No, you don’t. If you break out D&D or Pathfinder or Shadowrun or any tabletop RPG on the weekends, chances are you’re looking for more orcs in your day-to-day. Michael Phillips has you covered with the Grond series! A half-orc fighting his orc family! Orc-errific!
For my end, I live in Georgia, which has taken on a degree of prominence in the TV production world. But, for many other creative endeavors, it’s pretty far from where the action’s at. The potential to meet a local creator to network with is an opportunity to break out my rusty speaking skills instead of typing… Always typing. Will Jamie want to meet me? That’s CLEARLY not part of the crowdfunding campaign so I have no illusions that he’s dying to meet a dude named Egg. Heck, he’s not too far away, he may know some Embry’s and be feeling Hatfield toward McCoy, you know. Still, an interesting possibility of an “extra”. When looking at wanna-lancer opportunities, this is a bonus. The potential to meet someone in the industry outside of a convention is worth looking into.
