Mentzer's Epic Worlds of Empyrea Kickstarter Launches For 10 Game Systems!

Frank Mentzer's Worlds of Empyrea Kickstarter has launched! "Box, Darlene maps, 5 core books, 1 System book: D&D 5E, Pathfinder, Runequest, Savage Worlds, DCC, C&C, S&W, HackM, D&D BECMI, or 1E/2E"

​

For $50 you get the boxed set in PDF format, or you can go for the $65 print version. Each box contains a full-colour two-part map, an Empire core book softcover, a Player's Guide softcover, a system book for the game of your choice, and three "little brown books". There are larger reward tiers, of course - for $10,000 you get to join the inner circle of playtesters, and Frank will host 10 or more games on a virtual tabletop (VTT).

The aim of this Kickstarter is ambitions - a central game setting used by a multitude of different game systems, starting with the above ten, but with more planned for the future. Currently the setting supports:

• [FONT=&quot]Dungeons & Dragons 5E[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1E & 2E[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]​Dungeons & Dragons BECMI[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot]RuneQuest[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot]Savage Worlds[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot]Pathfinder[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot]Castles & Crusades[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot]Dungeon Crawl Classics[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot]Hackmaster[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot][/FONT][FONT=&quot]Swords & Wizardry.[/FONT]

Frank is raising $250,000 for this Kickstarter.

Check out my interview with Frank here.

"Legendary Dungeons & Dragons® game author Frank Mentzer presents his own fantasy world, 40 years in the making!Philadelphia PA, 1978: Singles and spouses gather to tell stories together in a game that has run for 2 years, half as old as the rules themselves. These are the new Role Players, choosing cooperative games over competition. They love the epic tales from Frank’s D&D® game...fun and exciting, the dawn of an era!

Lake Geneva, 1983: Working at TSR, publisher of the game, Frank writes the D&D “Red Box” set and a full line thereafter, selling tens of millions of copies in 14 languages.

Near Lake Geneva, 2017: After a lifetime of gaming experience, the creator of that original campaign offers it for everyone’s use.

Loxley inc proudly presents—Frank Mentzer’s Worlds of Empyrea."

The all-star roundup of legendary TSR authors includes: David "Zeb" Cook (D&D Expert, AD&D 2e), Ed Greenwood (Forgotten Realms), Allen Hammack(Ghost Tower of Inverness), Tracy Hickman (Dragonlance, Ravenloft), Harold Johnson (Lost Shrine of Tamoachan), Tim Kask (Dragon Magazine), Len "Leomund" Lakofka (Lendore Isles),Steve Marsh (D&D Expert), Douglas Niles (City of Greyhawk), James M. Ward (Deities & Demigods, Gamma World), “Skip” Williams (Sage Advice, D&D 3e), with a Foreword by Margaret Weis (Dragonlance).

And the artists involved with the project are equally impressive: Clyde Caldwell, Liz Danforth, Jeff Dee, Jeff Easley, Larry Elmore, Jennell Jaquays, “Diesel” LaForce, Erol Otus, Stephen D. Sullivan.

 

[jerryrice4949]

I think the KS already looks like it might have a little trouble. 250K is a tall order and the 2nd day has already slowed to a couple thousand from almost 48K yesterday. That is not a good sign. Maybe iam a pessimist but all the KS I have seen go anywhere near 250 raised about 100k is the first 72 hours.

 

[amerigoV]

I am not sure what to make of this one.

The fact that Savage Worlds is involved caught my eye. But as others note its added risk when there are multiple game systems involved (see Talislanta KS where they are nixing Savage Worlds and PF - I mean, its called The Savage Lands how can you NOT use Savage Worlds!?!? [I know there are extenuating circumstances there - but even before then I only pledged to get the PDF because of that risk). Additionally, when you make something for multiple systems is there going to be any follow up? In a new world an adventure arc helps give GMs and players a feel of the world. That seems challenging given all the systems (even if many are just D&D variants)

There is very little on the KS page but nostalgia (names you know! maps by people you know! Gygax! little old D&D books! Box sets!). The video does not tell us anything about the world. Buried in the KS is a link to more info on the world
http://worldsofempyrea.com/what-is-empyrea/ . There is a long Vid that I did not watch, so maybe there is something there (although this is the interview that caught my eye since he did praise Savage Worlds). Again, its a pitch - it needs to be sharp, evocative, and concise. I mean, we have all be trapped by That Gamer that rambles on about their world.

The bullet list was rather underwhelming. It just feels unpolished in its presentation. "You got some giants over here, a few squid over there, and some confused orcs". Its a fantasy world - it needs to have something that distinguishes it from all the other published and peoples own homebrews. There are a few hints, but nothing that really popped.

The Pledge levels are a bit odd. The "normal ones" are pretty standard. The high ones just do not make sense to me (signed maps, your face on a NPC in the art (fatbeard art ...), etc). The funding currently at $50k a few days in is misleading as well - there are 4 people who pledged $1000 and someone actually pledged $10K! (and the only real benefit is you get to playtest with the creators ... crazy).

It might be a really cool setting but its not coming across in the KS/webpage. My game group has 3 GMs - I have to give a more polished pitch than I am seeing here to just get to the table . But I wish it well. Maybe they will sharpen their pitch over the course of the KS.

Edit - Addition: Just noticed in the KS comments about how the thing is not even written. Ok, perhaps I am just spoiled by Pinnacle and other Savage Worlds creators, but usually they have most of the material in place. The KS is all the art, layout, physical product, etc. Heck, usually they have the main deliverables done and you get the PDF once funds are collected and you are just waiting on the physical books and any stretch goal deliverables. So here they indicate there are detailed notes, but I would have expected the core book to be mostly done and the real writing lift would be the add-on books for the different rules.

 

[JeffB]

Darlene is an early TSR artist best known and loved for producing the original Greyhawk Maps. For many, these are still the "maps to beat"

The 3 Little brown books (LBBs) are the original D&D rules that came in a Woodgrain/White box- Men & Magic, Monsters & Treasure, and Underworld & Wilderness Adventures.

 

[dave2008]

I have to agree with [MENTION=6794167]jerryrice4949[/MENTION] , this looks like a failed campaign to me. It has only 1/5th it is goal amount compared to the 7th Sea KS (which also has 38 days to go), which has made its goal and has 2x the amount backed. I think this one is dead. It is unfortunate as I think they could have made it if they restructured the KS campaign to a more traditional model: lower goal amount with multiple stretch goals.

 

[Mike Myler]

Frank has gone in and added a bunch of campaign setting information directly to the Kickstarter page!

 

[JeffB]

I am a big fan of Frank. I even own his personal, ragged, penciled in errata, play copies of the Basic and Expert books. Many of the big names are a draw for me, but the product/setting hasn't tripped my trigger, even with it's "Gary cred".

I wish him luck, but this looks entirely too ambitious for a KS project.

 

[EthanSental]

60k so far. Need to get the train over the hill so it picks up speed and hits the mark!

 

[jedijon]

Aw geez.

So Frank isn't active in the campaign at all, but Mike Myler is purportedly quoting him...

A backer asks what the three brown books will be (you know, because you have to PAY for them...and may want to know what you're paying for...), here's Mike quoting Frank:

"What do the "Three Little Brown Books" actually contain?
-F- Yep, that's a 'gotcha'. I don't know. Let me explain (no, there is too much, let me sum up). In the original D&D game of 1974, they had 3 Little Brown Books. Those are famous and cool, so I want 3 LBBs for my campaign set. With 2 core books weighing in at over 350 pages, we have a lot of freedom in planning these, so we'll take our time. They may include the Intro adventures and backgrounds, special character and GM info, special adventure leads, and more... but we insist on taking our time to do them right, not commit too far in advance and have to correct later. Thanks for understanding."

Wow!

So for $250,000 there's no concept of what's happening? That's a disaster.

--update-- sent him a note via kickstarter to request that he develop an update plan as the kickstarter's been live for >1 week and there's 0 updates. So you could probably just stop there and conclude that this is poorly helmed--and that's a faultless conclusion. Or, maybe if you're really inclined you could extent the benefit of doubt and say it's first-timers-vast-over-ambition and maybe there's better things in store. It doesn't do anything for me, so I'm skipping this regardless and just puzzling in a pre-emptive post-mortem. Now, Dragons Conquer America - that looks like the kind of purchase that's awesome to page though inspirational whether used at the table OR NOT, AND moreover promises all kinds of cool gamery stuff once the right group is lined up to play it.

 

[EthanSental]

Added 2k in 4 days...(62k so far) - might be a hill giant push to get it jump started!

 

[TerraDave]

They just sent a note to backers: they are relaunching the kickstarter. Rebooted version launched October 16.