RPG Crowdfunding News – Floral Dragons, Lairs & Legends, Secret Dragons, and more

This week’s TTRPG crowdfunding review covers projects that end between May 1 to 8. As always, this is a sampling of what’s on offer with looks at campaigns for 5e material as well as Pathfinder Second Edition, Swords & Sorcery, and more worth checking out.

The Field Guide to Floral Dragons from Hit Point Press

• END DATE: Thu, May 2 2024 3:05 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $39 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the book
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Dragons based upon flowers, what could go wrong with plant wyrms?! The Field Guide to Floral Dragons features over 25 floral dragons, pests, pollinators, and fungi across 200 pages. Each entry features stat blocks, abilities, lore, plot hooks, and everything else you’d want when bringing flower (dragon) power to your gaming table. The idea of dragons based on environments has been around since the earliest days of D&D. This book drills down from the environment to consider specific items within that world as influences on these dragon designs. The team at Hit Point Press brought artist Kin Wald in to create the right visuals for their flora creatures. Without art to elevate these ideas, the creatures won’t capture the gamer’s imagination. Because of Kin Wald’s illustrations, which are gorgeous, this book is one part 5e sourcebook and one part artbook. The Field Guide to Floral Dragons was written for fans that need a tabletop sourcebook inspired by the worlds of How to Train Your Dragon, Dragonology, and Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book. This sourcebook is ideal for a campaign featuring wilderness, druids, and rangers. (Is it wrong that I’m hoping for allergy powers? Roll to Save versus runny nose!)

Secret Dragons: Epic New Playable Dragons for 5E and PF2 from Roll For Combat

• END DATE: Wed, May 1 2024 11:59 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition and Pathfinder Second Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebooks
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $139 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of all four books in the system of your choice
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Let’s keep looking at dragon sourcebooks. Roll For Combat is creating four books for 5e and Pathfinder Second Edition, each one focused on the greatest of fantasy beasts. The four books – Leshy Dragons, Fairy Dragons, Misfit Dragons, and Battle Dragons – focus on different types of dragons. Each book takes a specific aspect – the fey, fighting, the island of misfit toys, plants – and applies the attributes to the dragons in a bit of fantasy kitbash. For example, Leshy Dragons looks at dragons derived from leshies, plants, and fungi, each drawing their powers from the natural world. While this isn’t the only book from this campaign, it is comparable with The Field Guide to Floral Dragons from Hit Point Press above providing a baseline for comparison. From this campaign, Battlezoo Dragons: Leshy Dragons is 100 pages of dragon ancestries, stat blocks for a variety of dragons, detailed great wyrms, and general leshy dragon lore. Its strength is its interconnectivity to the other three Battlezoo Dragon books and, for PF2e fans, offering the content in that ruleset. If you’re interested, the campaign offers VTT tokens and a free PDF download to preview what you’ll get.

Lairs & Legends 2 - The Definitive 5e Resource Anthology from The DM Lair

• END DATE: Thu, May 2 2024 8:00 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebooks
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $120 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of both books
• AI STATEMENT: “To put it bluntly, there will be no AI-generated content in either Lairs & Legends 2 or Loot & Lore 2.”
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Two books (over 600 pages) featuring 30 5e adventures with 30 encounters, 30 traps, and 30 puzzles against over 100 monsters. This crowdfunding campaign takes the content from the 2022 issues of Lair Magazine, revises it and puts it into two hardcovers. The adventures include six three-part arcs to keep this from being a collection of one-shots (though there are one-shots in the book as well). These books augment the 5e ruleset with some new, optional rules for multi-skill challenges, naval engagements, diseases, sanity, and more. If these adventures and options speak to you, check out the campaign page for a link to a free PDF preview.

Swords & Wizardry: Expansions, Monsters, and More! from Mythmere Games

• END DATE: Tue, May 7 2024 12:25 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Swords & Wizardry
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $115 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the four books (Book of Options, Fiends and Foes, Tomb of the Iron God, and Domain of Heryngard) plus the GM screen
• ADDITIONAL REPORTING: I interviewed Matt Finch of Mythmere Games about this project
• AI STATEMENT: “We don't use any AI-generated art.”
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? It’s the 50th anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons so I’m eager to spotlight the main retro-clone of the original 1974 Dungeons & Dragons. This campaign provides two sourcebooks – The Book of Options and Fiends & Foes – and two adventures – Domain of Heryngard and Tomb of the Iron God. These books provide a major expansion to the Swords & Wizardry ruleset. The Book of Options offers up new classes, spells, and magic items such as the demon-hunter, bard, troubadour, illusionist, gnomes, and stygians. Fiends and Foes includes 300 monsters, all unique to this book, none of which are from the Complete Revised Rulebook. If you’re a fan of OD&D, these books expand the play options you have and they’re worth exploring.

Nightfell - A Grimdark Fantasy setting for PF2 from Grim Moon Studio

• END DATE: Wed, May 8 2024 11:00 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Pathfinder Second Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: €22 for the PDFs of both books
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This campaign brings the Nightfell campaign setting to the Pathfinder Second Edition ruleset. In Nightfell, the world is reduced to pockets of civilization, isolated bastions that need to connect with one another during the long night. Your job in this grimdark fantasy world is to keep connections and hope alive. It’s exciting to see third-party PF2e products and this one, with two books – Nightfell - Core Manual and Nightfell - Bestiary – provides a detailed setting to place your Pathfinder adventures in. Check out the campaign page for a free quickstart to see if this campaign setting is right for your gaming table.

Calendar of Many Adventures 2025 from Loke Battle Mats

• END DATE: May 2, 2024 at 5:00pm EDT.
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
• SYSTEM(S): System neutral
• PROJECT TYPE: RPG battlemaps and calendar
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $14 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the calendar
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This is a neat idea for 2025, a monthly wall calendar that provides one battlemap per month plus a related adventure. The maps are 12”x12” and lay down flat, no need to remove the single map from the collective before play. With each you’ll find encounters involving ruins, rooms, fields, forest, and a ship. It’s convenient, but the secret is hanging this on the wall and contemplating game night as you take a much deserved mental break from the day job. With tie-in adventures, you get the location, options, and VTT so this can be used digitally. If you like the idea of wall calendars as RPG accessories, this is worth a look.

A Night in the Library: A Bookish Adventure for D&D 5E from EN Publishing

• END DATE: Thu, May 2 2024 5:00 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Adventure
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £10 for the PDF of the adventure
• DISCLAIMER: EN World is a subsidiary of EN Publishing
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This project brings a library to your 5e game. Sooner or later, any long-term campaign needs to visit a library. In this 27-page book, you’ll get the tools to make that location-trope a fun reality. There’s a library adventure for levels 5 and 6 complete with maps, magic items, library-centric monsters, mundane books, and spellbooks. Among the monsters, the Living Spellbook is both a great monster and an item that every wizard is going to want to ingratiate themselves to. If you’re running a 5e campaign and you don’t have a library ready to drop into an adventure, A Night in the Library: A Bookish Adventure for D&D 5E is worth picking up and having on-hand just in case.

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[mamba]

probably a $5000 book might have funded

on the other hand the amount of work you can spend on a 5k project is much smaller than for a 60k one (if you do not see this as a pure labor of love). It simply might not be doable in 5

 

[Eyes of Nine]

on the other hand the amount of work you can spend on a 5k project is much smaller than for a 60k one (if you do not see this as a pure labor of love). It simply might not be doable in 5

Hey, he can set the price at whatever price he wants, that's capitalism. The overall funding goal publicized is a proxy for price, along some axes (obviously the price per reward tier is also a factor). Price in turn will influence demand. With Free being a unique consideration (like the number zero)

But also as a proxy for price, the higher he sets his initial goal, the larger demand he'll need to get to that funding goal

 

[Lalato]

But also as a proxy for price, the higher he sets his initial goal, the larger demand he'll need to get to that funding goal

Yep. It's a balancing act. With a project like this the goal needs to be set at the intersection of achievable and aspirational. That's going to vary from project to project.

A project like Adventure Time can set their goal at $100K without much fear of missing it (large fan base, reputable publisher, etc). A lot of these smaller projects typically set goals in the $5K to $15K range... as that seems to be the sweet spot. Above that and it becomes a bit of a stretch. Some projects make it, but many more do not.

I've seen a number of projects that have been relaunched with a lower goal... and then gone on to meet or exceed their original higher goal. I sometimes wonder if part of it is that people may tend to shy away from the slower moving projects that don't meet their goal within the first week of launch.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I sometimes wonder if part of it is that people may tend to shy away from the slower moving projects that don't meet their goal within the first week of launch.

I have definitely heard people online say this