Welcome back to our weekly look at tabletop roleplaying game, and accessories, crowdfunding roundup! Each week we’ll be looking at a few campaigns currently running that have caught our eye as well occasionally speaking to some of the creators about their campaigns, or looking at some of the ‘behind the scenes’ business aspects of putting together, launching, operating and then delivering a crowdfunded project. If you have anything you’d like us to cover, or questions about anything we talk about, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment or contact me directly.
[h=3]King of Storms by Postworldgames Jim Pinto[/h]
(Campaign Ends : Friday 16th September 2016; 20:19 UTC)
Jim Pinto’s King of Storms Kickstarter is actually for a number of books all using the GMless Praxis game system. In Praxis players take on both the roles of characters as well as authors of the story. This is a semi-competitive cooperative roleplaying game, as all characters will have their own goals but the players will need to work together to weave a compelling story.
“Players create scenes for the characters to push their own agendas. The core mechanics revolve around three things: dice, milestones, and trepidation. Dice determine the outcome of dramatic conflict, in a way that may surprise everyone. Milestones and goals shape the story. Trepidation is all the bad things that can happen when a character fails. Each character has a list of five milestones and trepidations that are specific enough to provide flavour, but vague enough to not pigeon-hole play.
Characters are the heart of Praxis. Every piece of the story grows from the successes and failures of the players’ actions. Unlike traditional roleplaying games, where characters are insular until they interact with the environment, Praxis characters are the environment, protagonists, and story, all wrapped into one. Everything needed to write a story is on the character sheets.
Praxis comes with six character roles and each role has a unique combination of objectives, quirks, powers, milestones, and so on. These combinations make Praxis stories different every time.
Each Praxis game is 80 pages long, complete with all the rules, advice, and character sheets needed to play.”
The games that are currently available on the campaign are:
King of Storms – the characters are descendants of the gods and titans who slew one another in a great battle for the heavens 1000 years ago. From their blood rose the scions of power and the minions who would do their bidding. Some were born of gods’ blood, noble and perfect. Others were born from titans’ blood, twisted and malevolent. A third was born an abomination of the two – half god, half titan: the bloodless gorgons. But the storm is coming. The time of ascendancy is at hand. The kingdom can have but one ruler – the king of storms. Which child of heaven shall take their place upon the throne? And who will be consumed by the storm?
The Lambs – the characters are people who believe their god speaks to them through signs and portents. Everything around them is a message telling them to “do his bidding”. And each Lamb has the power and hunger to make change, if only until they are released.
Odin’s Eye – the characters are search and rescue specialists aboard a galaxy-spanning spaceship. They’re dedicated, highly-trained, and often sent into impossibly hostile places. Their motto – No Star Unturned – serves as a reminder that they never give up, even when that could spell their doom.
Of The Flesh – is a game of zombies trying to become human once more.
The Black Monk – a strange fantasy game about immortality.
[h=3]The Chronicles of Aerthe – Dark Fantasy RPG by Rogue Blade Games[/h]
(Campaign Ends : Wednesday 28th September 2016; 11:08 UTC)
Chronicles of Aerthe takes place in a setting that has been splintered and reformed with parts of may parallel realities because of a cataclysmic event known as The Convergence. The Cataclysm forced these realities to merge, leaving echoes of themselves as they passed through each other and trapping peoples, creatures and indeed entire cities and areas in the wrong reality. Gateways still exist allowing travellers, wittingly or unwittingly, to stumble through fractures in to other realities.
“Arete is where it all begins. A rebuilt world 50 years after the Convergence, echoes of other worlds have changed Aerthe’s landscape. Forests exist within deserts and cities abide by different laws of both nature and magic due to realities merging together. This is a place where dragons roam the skies and magic can be both dangerous and beneficial.
The continent is ruled by the Cleric Lords and their Faith Militant – corrupt, overzealous puritans who hunt down any that oppose the Faith’s laws and power. The Guilds battle amongst themselves for wealth and control over the cities and trade. Secretly they work together to fund and train the Archons, a specialized unit of agents created to exist in any reality and to be the front-line in the inevitable war against the Faith.
Fractures in reality act as gateways to other Aerthes, these may be ruled by different laws of magic and physics, they may have experienced disasters that have turned them into ice, desert, or dead worlds. Each new realm will bring new races and religions, new monsters and enemies. As characters you can explore these new worlds of exist within them, the options are endless.
Watching from betwixt the parallel, lurking in the empty spaces that hold the web of reality together, are the Dark Gods. These malicious and cunning beings wait as the fabric of matter weakens, approaching the time when they can descend to take their rightful place as rulers of the Aerthe.”
The game uses a new d6-based system called Vanguared. You can download a Quick-Start Guide, including an introductory adventure, for Chronicles of Aerthe here.
[h=3]Hunters Mark: Long Live the Hunt! New 5E options! By Game Natural[/h]
(Campaign Ends : Sunday 18th September 2016; 16:00 UTC)
Welcome to the World of Monster Hunting!
“Ready to explore lairs and takedown the fiercest creatures of the land? Smart enough to go toe-to-toe with Monsters of Legend to become a Legend yourself? Rise to the Call and make your Mark!” – Recruitment pamphlet for The Hunters Guild
Hunters Mark is an adventure/sourcebook for D&D 5E that contains new monsters, crafting, gear, and rules for running a party of Hunters from level 1 to 10+.
“Hunters Mark provides you with an over-the-top storyline, bad-ass monster fights, and perilous lairs to plunder. Welcome to the bold world of monster hunting – where the only thing more savage than rampaging monsters are the hunters tasked to take them down. You’ll get everything you need in this book to expand your world including monster spoils, a new treasure option for characters!”
[h=3]American Sunset – A Wild West Tabletop Roleplaying Game by High Stakes Press[/h]
(Campaign Ends : Tuesday 20th September 2016; 23:33 UTC)
I’ve got a bunch of Western RPG’s over the years – from Boot Hill to Deadlands to Aces & Eights – and have always been a fan of western movies so when American Sunset appeared on Kickstarter I headed straight over to have a look.
American Sunset is set in a fictional post-Civil War Wild West which can be played as a straight western or combined with some ‘fantastic’ elements to be played with more of a ‘weird west’ feel.
One of the things that I liked the sound of is there use of ‘Reputation’ in the game… “Reputation is a powerful force in American Sunset, and player characters can take advantage of this by using their influence, whatever it may be, to re-shape the world around them. After performing incredible, improbable, or extraordinary feats, characters can call upon the stories of their accomplishments to bolster (or diminish!) their odds.”
“The War of the Rebellion is over and the push to colonize the West is only stronger for it. Displaced veterans and ex-slaves are traveling west in search of a new life, and immigrants from across the Atlantic are spilling out of East Coast cities, searching for liberty on the frontier. The more territory that is mapped and claimed in these final years of expansion, the more native tribes are forced away from their lands and traditions. Soldiers, encouraged and supplied by the United States government, are in open war with native Americans who refuse to give up their homes without a fight.
Silver Springs is a city in the heart of Jefferson State, the most recent to be admitted into the Union. The last stop before the edge of the map, every two-bit bandit and hopeful frontiersman in the West has walked these dusty streets, as well as every legendary outlaw and every prospector who’s struck it rich.
Meanwhile, stranger things lurk in the remote fringes of the frontier, waiting to be discovered. Folk tales and legends speak of strange monsters, places that resist being found, and people with impossible powers.”
[h=3]Polyhedral Dice Set: 7 Viking Dice by Triple Ace Games Ltd[/h]
(Campaign Ends : Monday 5th September 2016; 10:00 UTC)
Triple Ace Games, better known for RPG books, such as Hellfrost and Leagues of Adventure, have dabbled in card and board games recently and have just added ‘dice’ to their resume with this new Kickstarter.
The campaign pretty much does what it says in the title – offering up a set of Viking-themed dice that would certainly add that extra flavour to any Viking or Norse themed RPG, dice collection or RPG in general.
The dice come in the standard RPG denominations (d4, d6, d8, d10 (0-9), d10 (00-90), d12 and d20) and are available in a variety of colours. If dice aren’t enough for you they are also offering a rune carved wooden dice box that can hold up to 50 dice to keep your collection in (or if you’re like me keep a small part of your dice collection in…)
*****
If you like what we do here at EN World (the Forums, Columns, News, ENnies, etc) and would like to help support us to bring you MORE please consider supporting our Patreon. Even a single dollar helps
Thanks!
If you have a forthcoming Kickstarter, or see one that excites you, please feel free to drop me an email on angus.abranson@gmail.com You can follow me on Twitter @ Angus_A or on Facebook where I often post about gaming.
Until next week, have fun and happy gaming!
Angus Abranson
[h=3]King of Storms by Postworldgames Jim Pinto[/h]
(Campaign Ends : Friday 16th September 2016; 20:19 UTC)
Jim Pinto’s King of Storms Kickstarter is actually for a number of books all using the GMless Praxis game system. In Praxis players take on both the roles of characters as well as authors of the story. This is a semi-competitive cooperative roleplaying game, as all characters will have their own goals but the players will need to work together to weave a compelling story.
“Players create scenes for the characters to push their own agendas. The core mechanics revolve around three things: dice, milestones, and trepidation. Dice determine the outcome of dramatic conflict, in a way that may surprise everyone. Milestones and goals shape the story. Trepidation is all the bad things that can happen when a character fails. Each character has a list of five milestones and trepidations that are specific enough to provide flavour, but vague enough to not pigeon-hole play.
Characters are the heart of Praxis. Every piece of the story grows from the successes and failures of the players’ actions. Unlike traditional roleplaying games, where characters are insular until they interact with the environment, Praxis characters are the environment, protagonists, and story, all wrapped into one. Everything needed to write a story is on the character sheets.
Praxis comes with six character roles and each role has a unique combination of objectives, quirks, powers, milestones, and so on. These combinations make Praxis stories different every time.
Each Praxis game is 80 pages long, complete with all the rules, advice, and character sheets needed to play.”
The games that are currently available on the campaign are:
King of Storms – the characters are descendants of the gods and titans who slew one another in a great battle for the heavens 1000 years ago. From their blood rose the scions of power and the minions who would do their bidding. Some were born of gods’ blood, noble and perfect. Others were born from titans’ blood, twisted and malevolent. A third was born an abomination of the two – half god, half titan: the bloodless gorgons. But the storm is coming. The time of ascendancy is at hand. The kingdom can have but one ruler – the king of storms. Which child of heaven shall take their place upon the throne? And who will be consumed by the storm?
The Lambs – the characters are people who believe their god speaks to them through signs and portents. Everything around them is a message telling them to “do his bidding”. And each Lamb has the power and hunger to make change, if only until they are released.
Odin’s Eye – the characters are search and rescue specialists aboard a galaxy-spanning spaceship. They’re dedicated, highly-trained, and often sent into impossibly hostile places. Their motto – No Star Unturned – serves as a reminder that they never give up, even when that could spell their doom.
Of The Flesh – is a game of zombies trying to become human once more.
The Black Monk – a strange fantasy game about immortality.
[h=3]The Chronicles of Aerthe – Dark Fantasy RPG by Rogue Blade Games[/h]
(Campaign Ends : Wednesday 28th September 2016; 11:08 UTC)
Chronicles of Aerthe takes place in a setting that has been splintered and reformed with parts of may parallel realities because of a cataclysmic event known as The Convergence. The Cataclysm forced these realities to merge, leaving echoes of themselves as they passed through each other and trapping peoples, creatures and indeed entire cities and areas in the wrong reality. Gateways still exist allowing travellers, wittingly or unwittingly, to stumble through fractures in to other realities.
“Arete is where it all begins. A rebuilt world 50 years after the Convergence, echoes of other worlds have changed Aerthe’s landscape. Forests exist within deserts and cities abide by different laws of both nature and magic due to realities merging together. This is a place where dragons roam the skies and magic can be both dangerous and beneficial.
The continent is ruled by the Cleric Lords and their Faith Militant – corrupt, overzealous puritans who hunt down any that oppose the Faith’s laws and power. The Guilds battle amongst themselves for wealth and control over the cities and trade. Secretly they work together to fund and train the Archons, a specialized unit of agents created to exist in any reality and to be the front-line in the inevitable war against the Faith.
Fractures in reality act as gateways to other Aerthes, these may be ruled by different laws of magic and physics, they may have experienced disasters that have turned them into ice, desert, or dead worlds. Each new realm will bring new races and religions, new monsters and enemies. As characters you can explore these new worlds of exist within them, the options are endless.
Watching from betwixt the parallel, lurking in the empty spaces that hold the web of reality together, are the Dark Gods. These malicious and cunning beings wait as the fabric of matter weakens, approaching the time when they can descend to take their rightful place as rulers of the Aerthe.”
The game uses a new d6-based system called Vanguared. You can download a Quick-Start Guide, including an introductory adventure, for Chronicles of Aerthe here.
[h=3]Hunters Mark: Long Live the Hunt! New 5E options! By Game Natural[/h]
(Campaign Ends : Sunday 18th September 2016; 16:00 UTC)
Welcome to the World of Monster Hunting!
“Ready to explore lairs and takedown the fiercest creatures of the land? Smart enough to go toe-to-toe with Monsters of Legend to become a Legend yourself? Rise to the Call and make your Mark!” – Recruitment pamphlet for The Hunters Guild
Hunters Mark is an adventure/sourcebook for D&D 5E that contains new monsters, crafting, gear, and rules for running a party of Hunters from level 1 to 10+.
“Hunters Mark provides you with an over-the-top storyline, bad-ass monster fights, and perilous lairs to plunder. Welcome to the bold world of monster hunting – where the only thing more savage than rampaging monsters are the hunters tasked to take them down. You’ll get everything you need in this book to expand your world including monster spoils, a new treasure option for characters!”
[h=3]American Sunset – A Wild West Tabletop Roleplaying Game by High Stakes Press[/h]
(Campaign Ends : Tuesday 20th September 2016; 23:33 UTC)
I’ve got a bunch of Western RPG’s over the years – from Boot Hill to Deadlands to Aces & Eights – and have always been a fan of western movies so when American Sunset appeared on Kickstarter I headed straight over to have a look.
American Sunset is set in a fictional post-Civil War Wild West which can be played as a straight western or combined with some ‘fantastic’ elements to be played with more of a ‘weird west’ feel.
One of the things that I liked the sound of is there use of ‘Reputation’ in the game… “Reputation is a powerful force in American Sunset, and player characters can take advantage of this by using their influence, whatever it may be, to re-shape the world around them. After performing incredible, improbable, or extraordinary feats, characters can call upon the stories of their accomplishments to bolster (or diminish!) their odds.”
“The War of the Rebellion is over and the push to colonize the West is only stronger for it. Displaced veterans and ex-slaves are traveling west in search of a new life, and immigrants from across the Atlantic are spilling out of East Coast cities, searching for liberty on the frontier. The more territory that is mapped and claimed in these final years of expansion, the more native tribes are forced away from their lands and traditions. Soldiers, encouraged and supplied by the United States government, are in open war with native Americans who refuse to give up their homes without a fight.
Silver Springs is a city in the heart of Jefferson State, the most recent to be admitted into the Union. The last stop before the edge of the map, every two-bit bandit and hopeful frontiersman in the West has walked these dusty streets, as well as every legendary outlaw and every prospector who’s struck it rich.
Meanwhile, stranger things lurk in the remote fringes of the frontier, waiting to be discovered. Folk tales and legends speak of strange monsters, places that resist being found, and people with impossible powers.”
[h=3]Polyhedral Dice Set: 7 Viking Dice by Triple Ace Games Ltd[/h]
(Campaign Ends : Monday 5th September 2016; 10:00 UTC)
Triple Ace Games, better known for RPG books, such as Hellfrost and Leagues of Adventure, have dabbled in card and board games recently and have just added ‘dice’ to their resume with this new Kickstarter.
The campaign pretty much does what it says in the title – offering up a set of Viking-themed dice that would certainly add that extra flavour to any Viking or Norse themed RPG, dice collection or RPG in general.
The dice come in the standard RPG denominations (d4, d6, d8, d10 (0-9), d10 (00-90), d12 and d20) and are available in a variety of colours. If dice aren’t enough for you they are also offering a rune carved wooden dice box that can hold up to 50 dice to keep your collection in (or if you’re like me keep a small part of your dice collection in…)
*****
If you like what we do here at EN World (the Forums, Columns, News, ENnies, etc) and would like to help support us to bring you MORE please consider supporting our Patreon. Even a single dollar helps
If you have a forthcoming Kickstarter, or see one that excites you, please feel free to drop me an email on angus.abranson@gmail.com You can follow me on Twitter @ Angus_A or on Facebook where I often post about gaming.
Until next week, have fun and happy gaming!
Angus Abranson
