This week I thought I'd take a walk through some of the darker corners of Kickstarter projects to see what might be good fun. There are some winners, so check these out while there's still time.
These are kick starters for items that may have missed your notice -- they're not actual games, but accessories/gadgets that have either a direct or indirect application for gamers.
1. The Best Damn Metal Gaming Coins Ever (4 days to go)
These aren't the first coins intended to hit the market -- I was fascinated by Campaign Coins when they appeared on the market a few years ago, and I've considered using them in my home games.
As an interim, I did print paper money for a while -- using EN Publishing's Fantasy Money PDFs to print my own money. With paper, it was a little less satisfying than I imagine that having coins would be, but it was still an interesting addition to the magic item cards and other tokens I was passing out when the PCs found a cache.
The Best Damn Metal Gaming Coins Ever (please, by all that's holy, let me call them BDMGCE from now on…) are a very interesting improvement on campaign coins because of the way they're tied to specific cultures and periods. So, if you were a kickstarter backer for the Weird Wars: Rome setting (Savage Worlds), you might want to pick up a few sets of the Roman coins to use as loot or tokens in your game.
Tactile props are a big help, and even if you don't use them all the time, these can be a fun way to make the table experience a little better for your players.
2. Kapture The Audio Recording Wristband (26 days to go)
I'm a fan of audio recording gadgets -- I use my Livescribe pen for work and gaming, and get a lot out of both of them. If nothing else, it's a great aid to memory.
This new project puts a watch-style wristband on you that is always on, recording a 60 second buffered loop. If something happens around you and you want to preserve the moment, tap the Kapture and it stores the previous 60 seconds of audio, which is then downloaded to your smartphone, where you can edit it, tag it, etc.
With smart watches, Google Glass, and other wearable tech creating all kinds of noise, this is one more new technology idea that could be interesting. I don't know about this one, but it's interesting to see people coming up with new variations.
The primary advantage of the Kapture is that you don't need to know ahead of time that you're going to want to save a moment. It creates the possibility of a spontaneous capture -- you'll be able to say "wow, that was funny", tap your wrist, and save the moment to share. Will we see a sort of explosion of audio files alongside the instagrams and vines of the world? Who knows.
For gamers, though, it means always being able to say "that was an important moment" and saving it as a point of reference. And, it has the extra feature of making your privacy nut friends paranoid that they're always being recorded.
3. Mimic Miniatures: Personalized Gaming Miniatures of You (23 days to go)
View attachment 58833
(image from the Mimic Miniatures Kicstarter page, featuring the heads of authors Dave Farland, Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman, Larry Correia, and Carter Reid)
This is a dynamite idea. Three cheese for the saints that brought us 3D Printing, and the nerds who came up with this idea and put it into production.
It works like this -- they take a photograph or two of you (or someone else whose picture you send them) and they create a 28mm mini scale head based on those pictures. Depending on the backing level you select, and other options, you might want a handful of heads to put on your own minis, or you might want a complete mini (they have a handful of iconic models, and more will be unlocked as the Kickstarter continues).
The heads and minis are unpainted, but if you're not into painting yourself, Mimic Miniatures has partnered with Blue Table Painting who you can get to paint them for you.
Now, don't be surprised -- this is not a cheap mini. The $25 backer level will get you a single min -- say you wanted to try to convince your wife to play by getting her a steam punk gal mini and putting her head on it -- that's what it's going to run you. Or, for $48, you could back the project at the "4 Head" level, and get zombie versions of your brother's head to use on some of your zombie minis. Having Blue Table paint them for you will also not be cheap, but it might just be worth it.
So, what do you think? Anything here you're going to back? Any other kick starters out there you're excited about that might have been missed by the community?
These are kick starters for items that may have missed your notice -- they're not actual games, but accessories/gadgets that have either a direct or indirect application for gamers.
1. The Best Damn Metal Gaming Coins Ever (4 days to go)
These aren't the first coins intended to hit the market -- I was fascinated by Campaign Coins when they appeared on the market a few years ago, and I've considered using them in my home games.
As an interim, I did print paper money for a while -- using EN Publishing's Fantasy Money PDFs to print my own money. With paper, it was a little less satisfying than I imagine that having coins would be, but it was still an interesting addition to the magic item cards and other tokens I was passing out when the PCs found a cache.
The Best Damn Metal Gaming Coins Ever (please, by all that's holy, let me call them BDMGCE from now on…) are a very interesting improvement on campaign coins because of the way they're tied to specific cultures and periods. So, if you were a kickstarter backer for the Weird Wars: Rome setting (Savage Worlds), you might want to pick up a few sets of the Roman coins to use as loot or tokens in your game.
Tactile props are a big help, and even if you don't use them all the time, these can be a fun way to make the table experience a little better for your players.
2. Kapture The Audio Recording Wristband (26 days to go)
I'm a fan of audio recording gadgets -- I use my Livescribe pen for work and gaming, and get a lot out of both of them. If nothing else, it's a great aid to memory.
This new project puts a watch-style wristband on you that is always on, recording a 60 second buffered loop. If something happens around you and you want to preserve the moment, tap the Kapture and it stores the previous 60 seconds of audio, which is then downloaded to your smartphone, where you can edit it, tag it, etc.
With smart watches, Google Glass, and other wearable tech creating all kinds of noise, this is one more new technology idea that could be interesting. I don't know about this one, but it's interesting to see people coming up with new variations.
The primary advantage of the Kapture is that you don't need to know ahead of time that you're going to want to save a moment. It creates the possibility of a spontaneous capture -- you'll be able to say "wow, that was funny", tap your wrist, and save the moment to share. Will we see a sort of explosion of audio files alongside the instagrams and vines of the world? Who knows.
For gamers, though, it means always being able to say "that was an important moment" and saving it as a point of reference. And, it has the extra feature of making your privacy nut friends paranoid that they're always being recorded.
3. Mimic Miniatures: Personalized Gaming Miniatures of You (23 days to go)
View attachment 58833
(image from the Mimic Miniatures Kicstarter page, featuring the heads of authors Dave Farland, Tracy Hickman, Laura Hickman, Larry Correia, and Carter Reid)
This is a dynamite idea. Three cheese for the saints that brought us 3D Printing, and the nerds who came up with this idea and put it into production.
It works like this -- they take a photograph or two of you (or someone else whose picture you send them) and they create a 28mm mini scale head based on those pictures. Depending on the backing level you select, and other options, you might want a handful of heads to put on your own minis, or you might want a complete mini (they have a handful of iconic models, and more will be unlocked as the Kickstarter continues).
The heads and minis are unpainted, but if you're not into painting yourself, Mimic Miniatures has partnered with Blue Table Painting who you can get to paint them for you.
Now, don't be surprised -- this is not a cheap mini. The $25 backer level will get you a single min -- say you wanted to try to convince your wife to play by getting her a steam punk gal mini and putting her head on it -- that's what it's going to run you. Or, for $48, you could back the project at the "4 Head" level, and get zombie versions of your brother's head to use on some of your zombie minis. Having Blue Table paint them for you will also not be cheap, but it might just be worth it.
So, what do you think? Anything here you're going to back? Any other kick starters out there you're excited about that might have been missed by the community?
I'm being very careful not to add or promise features that I can't deliver on. There has been much discussion about whether or not that's been damaging to the campaign, but in the long view it's what's best. Now to just get through the short term and cross the finish line.
