RPG Crowdfunding News 075: Dice Men, Dark Fantasy, The Beast Below, Warsong, Cities of the Black Scr

Welcome back to our weekly look at tabletop roleplaying game, and accessories, crowdfunding roundup! This week we look into the dawn of the British Roleplaying hobby and the two men who shaped generations, a collection of dark Pathfinder adventures, a 5th Edition module, a FATE game of cataclysmic war and some beautiful gaming tiles. 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.


Dice Men: Games Workshop The Early Years 1975 – 1985 by Jamie Thomson
(Campaign Ends : When Funded)

Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson (not to be confused with the American Steve Jackson of Steve Jackson Games) are icons, godfathers, of British Roleplaying. Whilst Games Workshop, the company they founded, is now more known for its miniatures and the Warhammer Fantasy and Warhammer 40,000 licenses, it was original started as a games importer and retailer and was the first company to sell the fledgling Dungeons & Dragons in Europe; indeed they got an exclusive distribution agreement from TSR on the back of ordering just six copies. Whilst Games Workshop turns over £100,000,000+ each year, at the beginning Steve and Ian were living out of the back of a van as they couldn’t afford to pay rent for both an office and accommodation.

This is the story of the early years of Games Workshop, the company and Ian and Steve themselves. It’s written by Jamie Thomson, alongside Ian and Steve themselves. Jaimie was assistant editor of White Dwarf magazine in the early 80’s as well as author of a few of the Fighting Fantasy Gamebooks (another craetion of by Ian and Steve).

This full colour, highly illustrated 300+ page hardcover, covers the early years of Games Workshop from 1975 to 1985, but the story itself starts in 1974 when they start following a dream to create a games company.

A grey day in 1974. Three games geeks are thinking about sinking everything they have into their dream of starting a games company. They go for it, but in less than a year one of them leaves. The remaining two carry on and end up living out the back of a van as they can't afford to pay rent for both an office and accommodation.

They're living off canned food and takeaways with all their meagre earnings going into the fledgling mail order business. The business grows, and in 1977 they make the decision to open their own shop. It was going to be a proper games shop, as opposed to the small room at the back of an estate agents they had been working out of. It was a damp day in April 1978 and the shop was about to open up for the first time. But would they get any customers? They had no idea whether anyone would turn up at all but when they opened that door on the first day they found...

Ian Livingstone, Steve Jackson and John Peake were the three games geeks who founded Games Workshop in their flat in Shepherd’s Bush. Not being a fan of D&D, John left the company, and Ian and Steve turned Workshop into a fantasy games specialist.

And that's what this book is about. A history of Games Workshop, not just the business narrative but the story of its founders and their journey, along with all the people they picked up along the way.

How did Ian and Steve do it? How did they get to that first Workshop store? What's the story behind Dungeons & Dragons coming to the UK, starting a whole new hobby? How did Games Workshop grow after that? It's now so big that it spans the globe. And along the way they invented an entirely new book publishing genre, too!


The campaign to raise money for the book is one that is not on Kickstarter, or Indiegogo, but Unbound. Unbound is a publishing house that works on the crowdfunding model to fund their books. There is no ‘end date’ as such, the campaign runs until the total is met, often exceeded. At that point the book gets completed and all backers get the exclusive ‘backer’ editions before a mass market edition is subsequently released and distributed worldwide through Penguin Puffin.

As well as a variety of formats for the book, some pledge levels also include a reproduction of Owl & Weasel #1, signed by Ian and Steve. The Owl and Weasel was originally published in 1975 before eventually being retired to launch White Dwarf magazine.


Pathfinder RPG Dark Fantasy – 8 Adventures by Matthew A. Bogdan
(Campaign Ends : Sunday 23rd December 2017; 05:01 UTC)

Dark Fantasy is a collection of eight Pathfinder adventures featuring the “8 Deadly Evils. Seven of the adventures can be played either individually or part of a campaign taking characters for 1st to 14th level. The eighth is actually a supplement that focuses on using a dark artefact to manifest endless horror-themed fantasy adventures.

The eight adventures you get are as follows:

Escape from Skullkeep Prison (for 4-6 PCs; 1st – 2nd Levels)
Would you risk your life to rescue a known outlaw from a corrupt warden’s prison?

Unrepentant prison warden CORNELIUS KRAST seems to have been hosting quarterly 
execution and torture parties geared towards entertaining those even richer and more influential than himself. Warden Krast seems to have iron-clad protection and is exempt from abusing his appointed duties. When a well-known warlock rogue that also happens to be a neighboring town’s sheriff is next on the warden’s docket of death, a rage-filled chain of supernatural events threaten to destroy the prison itself, and everyone in it. The PCs are hired and offered a generous reward and the possibility to bolster their reputations if they can right the sheriff’s massively irresponsible command to assault the prison with devastating magical spells.


Escape The Lair – Lich’s Brew (for 4-6 PCs; 3rd – 4th Levels)
Is the party willing to plunder a supposedly abandoned Lich’s lair?

The Holy Order of Athagos has come to you to undertake a quest that even the heartiest of souls would flee from. The party is asked to destroy a Lich’s tomb and death cache, and everything in it, in exchange for what bizarre treasures lie deep within. Rumors from years ago still persist in the bizarre and outlandish tricks and traps that this Lich delights in.


Slaughterhouse of the Ogre Mage (for 4-6 PCs; 5th – 6th Levels)
Would YOU enter into an Ogre Magi slaughterhouse to save neighboring towns from tainted meat? Would you do it if you knew you could be served as dinner for these Ogre Magi?

The Pine Barrens (for 4-6 PCs; 7th – 8th Levels)
Would you enter an island infested with evil slashers to capture or kill three escaped lunatics?

Tombs of Frostheim (for 4-6 PCs; 9th – 10th Levels)
Some say sinner, some say saint. Would you rescue a rogue outlaw three times your size?

A Frost Giant that has abandoned his high-ranking position and post in Frost Giant society has been recaptured by the Giants of Frostheim.

He, the once epic hero, HELVATH VORPNIR, had been imprisoned in FROSTHEIM GATE awaiting torture and execution for his misdeeds. A famous big game hunter has offered the party a veritable small fortune for his capture and safe return. This Frost Giant prison lair is the home of JARL GRIMTHROK OAKEN ROCK and is known to be the home of elite frost giant prison lords, not to mention the hordes of Yeti, remorhaz and the White Dragon known as Scythe.


Ghost Story – Winter’s Darkness (for 4-6 PCs; 11th – 12th Levels)
A scorched and abandoned steam train station is really the source for treasures beyond belief.

No Man’s Land (for 4-6 PCs; 13th – 14th Levels)
Is the party willing to delve into an as of yet unexplored layer of hell?

Those that delve into Hell are not ensured to find their way back… The Hellpits of Hellvath Tor is an undiscovered layer of The Underworld that is supposedly a gladiatorial arena for a variety of wicked underworld fiends. Some of these fiends happen to be human…


The Board in the Wood Shed (for 4-6 PCs; 1st – 20th Levels)
A powerful Wytch Board has fallen into evil hands and rests on a table in the unlikely lair of a variety of evil beings. This lair, a giant wood shed and former barn is the site where this very 
powerful artifact can be found. THE SPHINX OF BLACK QUARTZ Wytch Board is said to hold a 
seemingly endless array of powers great and small.

That particular set of powers is up to YOU, the Game Master, to decide!



Wyrmkeep Dungeons BW3: The Beast Below, a 5e DnD Adventure by Wyrmkeep Entertainment
(Campaign Ends : Thursday 21st December 2017; 22:01 UTC)

The Beast Below is a fantasy mini-adventrue module for six to eight adventures of 1st to 3rd levels.

Shops in the town of Barrowash report being ransacked by a terrible Beast that appears from apparently nowhere. A few of the shopkeepers have even gone missing! Those who have learned of the attacks have offered wild guesses to the cause: the malignant effects of an ancient curse, or a new cult infiltrating the town seeking victims for sacrifices, or it’s all just part of a petty squabble between feuding guilds.

A party of fledgling adventurers becomes embroiled in these events after trying to assist a shopkeeper. Can these bold characters unravel the mystery of The Beast Below and defeat the forces arrayed against them? What is the story behind the ruins that can be found under Barrowash itself? And finally, what is the proper attire for an informal gala… featuring treachery!

As noted wizard and resident Pi Rathos says, “If you wanted to live a simple existence, you should have thought better then come here. City life is not for the weak!”


The module will be about 20-24 pages and include over 15 encounter areas, two new monsters, maps and a summary of the most interesting locations in the town of Barrowash.


Warsong Second Edition for Fate Core by Raymond
(Campaign Ends : Sunday 17th December 2017; 05:59 UTC)

Warsong Second Edition is a game about cataclysmic war. A game that ”looks into the face of destiny, and decides for itself. It is a game about mythic deeds, and choosing free will over fate.

The Viziers guide the flow of our world toward its inexorable doom. The armies of the world amass and gather, intent on destruction and death. Only you can choose the path of your own fate. By your actions, you choose the course of history.

The burden of free will is yours alone. The chains of destiny cannot hold you.

You are free.”


This 400+ page, digest-sized, book will include all the rules to play a variety of characters, including Viziers, Quicksilvers and Neverborn. Extras are included for each type of character, including new powers, Aspect types, and antagonists – including the destiny-warping Untouched and Skien-Walkers. Detailed setting information, adventure hooks and a starting adventure are also included.

The Viziers are the main type of character in Warsong Second Edition. They are heirs to the destiny of the world, and the direct descendets of the ancient, god-like Viziers that watched over the fate of everything from a rabbit in the woods to cataclysmic disasters. As a Vizier, you do not have the world-shattering power that your ancestors held, but you must take up their mantle and choose whether to guide the world toward oblivion, or save it from certain doom. You wield powerful Loom Weaving abilities, which allow you to make alterations to the very destiny of the people, places and events around you. You can Hack The Loom, allowing you to make minor alterations to your own destiny and the destiny of others, or you can Dive, allowing you to create a fake persona and change situations in the past or the future by your own hands. As a Vizier, the fate of the world literally rests in your hands.

The Quicksilvers are descended from the ancient Lycanthrope. You are blessed with free will and the ability to change your shapes into any animal or person that you've encountered. Your do not have one true shape, but two. That of your human form which you were given at birth, and your animal totem, which gives you the power of the Eldritch Primordials to change your shape. It is your geas to protect the world and all life within it, and your ancestral prophecies have destined the end to come within your lifetime. Those Quicksilvers who will fight in the final battle have already be born.

The dreaded Neverborn are feared knights of death, itself. You do not need ancient lineage or powerful ancestors to claim your power, for your power was earned upon your death. You are the end of the cycle of life, culling the weak and feeble. You are also the means by which new life can grow. Without death, there is indeed no life. Without you, life would not exist. You can wield the powerful, inevitable mastery of death itself as one of the Neverborn, powerful agents of death and rebirth.

There are more types of characters to play as well. There are powerful mortals that have been trained by one of the clans in their very own styles of martial arts and warfare. They can wield strange technologies such as Power Armor, Relics and even Eldritch Sorcery, a dangerous and often outlawed method of using the energies of the Far Dimensions to create magical effects in reality.

Each of the Five Nations has a ruling class of individuals that either belong to a bloodline or have been adopted in. These families are called Clans and each clan has a ruling lord that seeks to vie for supremacy over the other nations. As the Grand Emperor reaches his final days, the already-fragile peace between the nations has devolved into all-out war. There is the stout and loyal Crab Clan, the ferocious Tiger Clan, the clever Monkey Clan, the devious Snake Clan and the wise Dragon Clan. There are clans that exist outside the rule of the Grand Emperor. Mistrusted and often seen as enemies to the rule of the Grand Emperor, there are the graceful Crane Clan and the malicious, deadly Scorpion Clan.

Who will rule the nations? You must decide.


Cities of the Black Scrolls – Modular Map-Tile Sets by Black Scroll Games

(Campaign Ends : Friday 22nd December 2017; 04:00 UTC)

This is a gorgeous collection of maps suitable for any fantasy roleplaying, or miniature, game. Available as digital, or print, there are three main sets available through the campaign:


CITY TILES
Where will a tried adventurer rest and find new quests?

Of course, a fantasy or medieval city is not only about its tavern, it is a living community with diverse buildings and people. Living houses, shops, the blacksmith, bakery, taverns, inns, the main square and the poor neighborhood with dark and dirty alleys are all parts of a bustling and noisy city, and these richly illustrated tiles will help your gamers to feel like they are involved in an incredible adventure. You can use these tiles to quickly shape your entire city or only a part of it, you don’t have to care how these tiles, the buildings, and streets will fit together because as a result of our unique design you can place the streets and houses at the same time. This set contains 60 double-sided tiles.



FORTRESS TILES
50 double-sided tiles not only with ramparts but with inner courtyards, towers and gates, too!


CASTLE TILES
A beautiful castle with throne rooms, kitchen, library, armory, cantinas, treasure room, office, winter garden, guest rooms and more! This set will contain 40 unique tiles with rooms, chambers, and corridors that you can mix with the Fortress tiles!


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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!

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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
 

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