This week we have games from classic Old School to classic Indie, with nods to 5th Edition & Pathfinder as well as a new Savage World setting, a new card-driven sci-fi horror game and the return of the Starchildren... Welcome back to our weekly look at tabletop roleplaying game crowdfunding roundup!
The Book of Many Things – Print Edition by Kevin Glusing
(Campaign Ends : Monday 2nd July 2018; 01:00 UTC)
Samurai Sheepdog are raising funds to bring their The Book of Many Things Books 1 and 2 to print. Book 1 is ready to go whilst Book 2 will be available later in the year as additional content is to added. Combined they’ll give you over 500+ pages of new content for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
The books will have loads of content, built from requests sent in from players around the world, that have been written out and made playable by the Samurai Sheepdog team. They’ll be more races, more classes, more archetypes, Convergences, feats, spells, new items and magical locations (in Book 2)…
To give you an idea of the type of races to expect, here’s the list they give on the campaign page…
Over 18 new classes are provided, including alternate, base and hybrid classes and there will also be campaign exclusive content only available through the Kickstarter.
The Mountain Witch: Samurai Blood Opera in Mythical Japan by Timothy Kleinert
(Campaign Ends : Wednesday 4th July 2018; 04:00 UTC)
The Mountain Witch has been an incredibly sought after game since its original publication in 2004. It was one of the critically acclaimed games coming out from the Indie RPG movement but quickly went out of print and, due to a number of personal issues, was never republished or made available digitally.
Now the games designer, Timothy Kleinert, returns to Mythical Japan with a new edition of this influential game, as well as an all new Deluxe Box Set!
The Mountain Witch is a self-contained role-playing adventure in which players take on the role of ronin in mythical medieval Japan. Outcast and unemployed, these samurai accept a job that no one else would take—to assault and kill the dreaded O-Yanma, the Mountain Witch of Mt Fuji. But can these individuals—who are haunted by their pasts and by dark fortune—be trusted? Can they overcome their differences and move together against the Witch? Or will dark fate overwhelm them?
Though moment-to-moment play is much like other role-playing games, this otherwise typical fantasy adventure quickly becomes complicated by character fates. At the start of the game, each ronin is given one of six dark fates. While these fates are generally described by the text, their details are left open to the imagination of the player. These fates pull the samurai's former lives into the adventure, creating ulterior motives for the characters.
At the same time, the conflict rules of The Mountain Witch uniquely revolve around the use of trust between characters. At designated points throughout the adventure, players must rate how much their character trusts the other members of the company. Then, based on that rating, the rest of the company may choose whether to help or betray the trusting ronin.
It is this dynamic between fate and trust that shapes the central tension of The Mountain Witch: the samurai must trust one another in order to survive, but can't trust one another because they all have ulterior motives. Make no mistake—this is not a game that all the ronin are going to survive...
Advanced Labyrinth Lord by Goblinoid Games
(Campaign Ends : Monday 16th July 2018; 15:03 UTC)
Advanced Labyrinth Lord is a combined volume consisting of the immensely popular OSR-game Labyrinth Lord, first published in 2007, and it’s supplement Advanced Edition Companion, which added all the advanced first edition options to the game while keeping compatibility with the B/X basic fantasy game.
This is the first time that the two books have been combined into one volume, and whilst there will be some new interior art, the content is the same as the earlier editions of the individual books.
Goblinoid Games are offering FOUR covers to choose from. Two of these are Kickstarter Exclusive covers, while the remaining two will be available to purchase after the campaign.
Dark Naga – Carcosa for 5th Edition by Dark Naga Adventures (Kevin Watson)
(Campaign Ends : Sunday 1st July 2018; 23:00 UTC)
Carcosa is a 5th Edition adventure for three to seven 12th level characters that follows on from Dark Naga’s Confronting Hastur module. Carcosa is part five, and the conclusion to, the Haunting of Hastur series.
“The characters wake up in Carcosa and are greeted by a broken man who tells them they only have a day to escape the plane before becoming permanent residents. The way home appears to require them to confront a demon lady and the three demon brothers who constantly vie for her attention and their domains within Carcosa. A land teeming with minor demons, humans, and three powerful Abrar, dreadful demon lords. Pressed for time, the party members find themselves pawns in the petty games of the brothers as they claw their way to worship before the lovely Grushka, the Abrar who runs Carcosa while Hastur slumbers. Their search for a way home reveals rumors of a way to trap Hastur in a longer, deeper slumber, giving their world peace from his attempts to invade for hundreds of millennia to come. Will they work to go home, or will they chance eternal damnation to save their world?”[\hq]
Secret Agents of CROSS for Savage Worlds by Pete Ruttman
(Campaign Ends : Sunday 1st July 2018; 04:59 UTC)
CROSS is a clandestine spy agency also known as the Catholic Response Organization to Strategize and Strike. It was created by a rogue Cardinal to take the Pope’s prayers and convert them into actions. Cardinal James McDonnell and his command staff create missions to protect the flock from evil, using a mix of cutting-edge technology and saintly magic honed over 2000 years of history.
Using the Savage Worlds system, Secret Agents of CROSS is a 170 page book introducing you to the world of CROSS, how it operates, how to create characters and run missions. Within its pages is a brief history of Biblical events that affect the modern world, a detailed history of CROSS and its command staff, new edges & hindrances, over 40 unique weapons created by CROSS’ engineers and a host of GM ‘Eyes Only’ material, including over 30 powerful artifacts and relics and suggestions on how you could use CROSS in other genres, such as fantasy or superhero settings.
The Bespoke Bestiary – A Custom 5e Monster Book by Mithrilpunk Press
(Campaign Ends : Thursday 5th July 2018; 15:26 UTC)
Mithrilpunk’s The Bespoke Bestiary is a monster manual for 5E with a difference. It blends a mix of new takes on classic monsters alongside brand new critters that backers come up with. The book, which currently stands at over 130 pages, gives 2 to 4 page spreads for each monster.
“When it comes to your table top game, there is always room for another monster, but so often you find yourself throwing the same tried and true creatures at your players. Orcs, Goblins, Dragons; the classics are classics for a reason but sometimes you really want something fresh and new. That's just what the Bespoke Bestiary aims to provide.
Think back to your earliest experiences with the game, before you knew what resistances that ooze had or what spell to NOT EVER cast at that golem. Remember those breathless sessions, not knowing if your party would determine the right tactics and techniques to bring down the terrifying new beast your game master threw at you?
We want to bring that back! We present to you, the Bespoke Bestiary, a monster tome done up in true Mithrilpunk style. Inside you will find dozens of new creatures complete with all the background you need to run them and the mechanics needed to scare your players with fresh terrors unlike any they have seen before.
All art will be in full color, though we've intentionally kept all art in greyscale at this stage in order to allow our backers to have influence even on the art direction!
What Makes It Bespoke?
At its core, your ideas, votes, and pledges will define this book as much as possible! Our goal with this bestiary is to create a tome full of your favorite monsters, pulled directly from your imagination and the imaginations of the backers who pledged with you, and we see three main ways to do that: getting your ideas, letting the community vote on those ideas, and having special add-on levels to sponsor a monster to ensure that your creation makes it to the pages of the bestiary. We will engage with our backers through regular feedback and communication, as well as surveys allowing you to help flesh out everything that goes into the book, and backers who purchase the sponsored monster options described in the Addons section will have a more direct impact on the book!”[\hq]
Velvet Generation by XIG Games
(Campaign Ends : Thursday 12th July 2018; 03:08 UTC)
Starchildren: Velvet Generation was originally published in 2002 and now, thanks to Kickstarter, is looking to return to fight the rock & roll revolution in an all-new edition. Gone is the original card-based mechanic in favour of a new d6 dice-pool mechanism, with a focus on group collaboration.
“A century ago, radio transmissions from Earth passed through a strange ripple in space, causing rock music to fall upon the mystified ears of an alien world. For five glorious years, the aliens grew to love the magical planet they believed to be on the other end of that beautiful signal. When the music cut off as mysteriously as it began, the aliens embarked on a generational pilgrimage to discover the source of that music.
Nearly a century later, the aliens have arrived, but Earth is not what they expected. Humanity has taken a dark turn, silencing music, the arts, literature...any kind of expression they believed could inspire "dangerous" thoughts. The Ministry of Music looms large over the entire world, stamping out rebellious culture with steel-sheathed jackboots.
With nowhere to go but forward, the Starchildren descended, joining the few Earthlings still carrying a spark of rock and roll. They catalyzed a new rock & roll revolution that will break the Ministry's chains on the soul of humanity.
This is the Velvet Generation.”
The Starchildren came on the scene in the form of dreamlike rock idols: luminescent, androgynous and mysterious beings that seem to float in an electric haze of glamour. They do their best to blend in with the drab creatures Earthlings have become since they lost the gift of music. Their very presence on the planet sent a shockwave through the collective subconscious, awakening something long since buried, and neither species will ever be the the same again.
Players portray the renegade rockers of the Velvet Generation, whether they be the alien Starchildren or the Earthlings pining for their lost rock & roll. Start your campaign out as unknown outlaw rockers, seeking out space to rehearse and play while evading the watchful electric eye of the Ministry of Music and spinning lies to get time off from your day job. Join the revolution by allying with the idealistic visionaries of Velvet or the violent hardliners of the Blue Army. Ascend to the leadership of regional and national cells as your band becomes a household name, finally toppling the Ministry of Music with the power of rock & roll.
This iteration uses a completely new rules engine from the 2002 original. The rules allow your group to riff off of one another onstage and off, and the revolutionary campaign system lets you build from game session to game session to fight back against the Ministry of Music to carry out a global rock and roll revolution.
Starship Infernum: a tabletop RPG of Interstellar Survival by Robert Turk
(Campaign Ends : Wednesday 4th July 2018; 23:59 UTC)
Starship Infernum is an easy pick-up and play game of sci-fi survival horror that uses two decks of regular playing cards instead of dice. The game is one of unrelenting horror, with alien monsters, psychological dangers and lots of explosions, all contained in a 108 page digest sized book.
Adventures are usually played out in 2 to 4 hours and the game requires no prep, as the ship layout and obstacles are generated from the deck of cards and crises are determined at the start of play.
Challenges are resolved with a hand of Blackjack, where players only take damage if they bust. Failure creates ‘Rising Tension’ which makes the next test harder, Jokers summon Swarms (mass challenges against the entire crew), Duty Abilities provide each crew member unique bonuses, and players can exhaust relevant traits to adjust their total score or use equipment for one-time bonuses.
The game sounds like it could be a lot of fun and, having backed it myself, I look forward to eventually trying it out!
**********
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
The Book of Many Things – Print Edition by Kevin Glusing
(Campaign Ends : Monday 2nd July 2018; 01:00 UTC)
Samurai Sheepdog are raising funds to bring their The Book of Many Things Books 1 and 2 to print. Book 1 is ready to go whilst Book 2 will be available later in the year as additional content is to added. Combined they’ll give you over 500+ pages of new content for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.
The books will have loads of content, built from requests sent in from players around the world, that have been written out and made playable by the Samurai Sheepdog team. They’ll be more races, more classes, more archetypes, Convergences, feats, spells, new items and magical locations (in Book 2)…
To give you an idea of the type of races to expect, here’s the list they give on the campaign page…
- Half-dwarves, otterlings, and vulture-men bring different cultures and character interactions to the table. Play as a nerude: A rotund, cat-like race who prefers to eat and sleep, but will adventure so they can find more time to eat, and sleep. Build characters with familiar races akin to some found in popular media like runekin(master weaponsmiths with an earthy appearance and giant swords), fiari (desert-dwelling thieves and sorcerers with red hair and a flare for the dramatic), and tsura (who commonly dwell in water, offering aid to young heroes).
[*]Arbiters, dalits, skaldaks, and swarmborn make for some curious, nonstandard races.
[*]Dragon souls, god-blooded, and nephilim bring the power of gods and other great beings to bear.
[*]Dwarrow, dworgs, and elflings hail from a dark realm ruled by a fallen god.
[*]World Soul dragonkin, dwarves (bronzemane, ironfire, and wildhill), elves (high, sun, moon, shadow, and star), tech gnomes, minotaurs (bison-fur, elk-horn, and eternal-flame), tieflings (exiled and star-forged), and trollkin (forest) celebrate their MMO counterparts with interesting abilities and traits.
[*]Minotaurs, leonin (lions), leporine (rabbits), sokari (unicorns), and ursaren (bears) round out a few other anthropomorphic races.
[*]Dryants, manussos, mushroom leshys, xendauni
Over 18 new classes are provided, including alternate, base and hybrid classes and there will also be campaign exclusive content only available through the Kickstarter.
The Mountain Witch: Samurai Blood Opera in Mythical Japan by Timothy Kleinert
(Campaign Ends : Wednesday 4th July 2018; 04:00 UTC)
The Mountain Witch has been an incredibly sought after game since its original publication in 2004. It was one of the critically acclaimed games coming out from the Indie RPG movement but quickly went out of print and, due to a number of personal issues, was never republished or made available digitally.
Now the games designer, Timothy Kleinert, returns to Mythical Japan with a new edition of this influential game, as well as an all new Deluxe Box Set!
The Mountain Witch is a self-contained role-playing adventure in which players take on the role of ronin in mythical medieval Japan. Outcast and unemployed, these samurai accept a job that no one else would take—to assault and kill the dreaded O-Yanma, the Mountain Witch of Mt Fuji. But can these individuals—who are haunted by their pasts and by dark fortune—be trusted? Can they overcome their differences and move together against the Witch? Or will dark fate overwhelm them?
Though moment-to-moment play is much like other role-playing games, this otherwise typical fantasy adventure quickly becomes complicated by character fates. At the start of the game, each ronin is given one of six dark fates. While these fates are generally described by the text, their details are left open to the imagination of the player. These fates pull the samurai's former lives into the adventure, creating ulterior motives for the characters.
At the same time, the conflict rules of The Mountain Witch uniquely revolve around the use of trust between characters. At designated points throughout the adventure, players must rate how much their character trusts the other members of the company. Then, based on that rating, the rest of the company may choose whether to help or betray the trusting ronin.
It is this dynamic between fate and trust that shapes the central tension of The Mountain Witch: the samurai must trust one another in order to survive, but can't trust one another because they all have ulterior motives. Make no mistake—this is not a game that all the ronin are going to survive...
Advanced Labyrinth Lord by Goblinoid Games
(Campaign Ends : Monday 16th July 2018; 15:03 UTC)
Advanced Labyrinth Lord is a combined volume consisting of the immensely popular OSR-game Labyrinth Lord, first published in 2007, and it’s supplement Advanced Edition Companion, which added all the advanced first edition options to the game while keeping compatibility with the B/X basic fantasy game.
This is the first time that the two books have been combined into one volume, and whilst there will be some new interior art, the content is the same as the earlier editions of the individual books.
Goblinoid Games are offering FOUR covers to choose from. Two of these are Kickstarter Exclusive covers, while the remaining two will be available to purchase after the campaign.
Dark Naga – Carcosa for 5th Edition by Dark Naga Adventures (Kevin Watson)
(Campaign Ends : Sunday 1st July 2018; 23:00 UTC)
Carcosa is a 5th Edition adventure for three to seven 12th level characters that follows on from Dark Naga’s Confronting Hastur module. Carcosa is part five, and the conclusion to, the Haunting of Hastur series.
“The characters wake up in Carcosa and are greeted by a broken man who tells them they only have a day to escape the plane before becoming permanent residents. The way home appears to require them to confront a demon lady and the three demon brothers who constantly vie for her attention and their domains within Carcosa. A land teeming with minor demons, humans, and three powerful Abrar, dreadful demon lords. Pressed for time, the party members find themselves pawns in the petty games of the brothers as they claw their way to worship before the lovely Grushka, the Abrar who runs Carcosa while Hastur slumbers. Their search for a way home reveals rumors of a way to trap Hastur in a longer, deeper slumber, giving their world peace from his attempts to invade for hundreds of millennia to come. Will they work to go home, or will they chance eternal damnation to save their world?”[\hq]
Secret Agents of CROSS for Savage Worlds by Pete Ruttman
(Campaign Ends : Sunday 1st July 2018; 04:59 UTC)
CROSS is a clandestine spy agency also known as the Catholic Response Organization to Strategize and Strike. It was created by a rogue Cardinal to take the Pope’s prayers and convert them into actions. Cardinal James McDonnell and his command staff create missions to protect the flock from evil, using a mix of cutting-edge technology and saintly magic honed over 2000 years of history.
Using the Savage Worlds system, Secret Agents of CROSS is a 170 page book introducing you to the world of CROSS, how it operates, how to create characters and run missions. Within its pages is a brief history of Biblical events that affect the modern world, a detailed history of CROSS and its command staff, new edges & hindrances, over 40 unique weapons created by CROSS’ engineers and a host of GM ‘Eyes Only’ material, including over 30 powerful artifacts and relics and suggestions on how you could use CROSS in other genres, such as fantasy or superhero settings.
The Bespoke Bestiary – A Custom 5e Monster Book by Mithrilpunk Press
(Campaign Ends : Thursday 5th July 2018; 15:26 UTC)
Mithrilpunk’s The Bespoke Bestiary is a monster manual for 5E with a difference. It blends a mix of new takes on classic monsters alongside brand new critters that backers come up with. The book, which currently stands at over 130 pages, gives 2 to 4 page spreads for each monster.
“When it comes to your table top game, there is always room for another monster, but so often you find yourself throwing the same tried and true creatures at your players. Orcs, Goblins, Dragons; the classics are classics for a reason but sometimes you really want something fresh and new. That's just what the Bespoke Bestiary aims to provide.
Think back to your earliest experiences with the game, before you knew what resistances that ooze had or what spell to NOT EVER cast at that golem. Remember those breathless sessions, not knowing if your party would determine the right tactics and techniques to bring down the terrifying new beast your game master threw at you?
We want to bring that back! We present to you, the Bespoke Bestiary, a monster tome done up in true Mithrilpunk style. Inside you will find dozens of new creatures complete with all the background you need to run them and the mechanics needed to scare your players with fresh terrors unlike any they have seen before.
All art will be in full color, though we've intentionally kept all art in greyscale at this stage in order to allow our backers to have influence even on the art direction!
What Makes It Bespoke?
At its core, your ideas, votes, and pledges will define this book as much as possible! Our goal with this bestiary is to create a tome full of your favorite monsters, pulled directly from your imagination and the imaginations of the backers who pledged with you, and we see three main ways to do that: getting your ideas, letting the community vote on those ideas, and having special add-on levels to sponsor a monster to ensure that your creation makes it to the pages of the bestiary. We will engage with our backers through regular feedback and communication, as well as surveys allowing you to help flesh out everything that goes into the book, and backers who purchase the sponsored monster options described in the Addons section will have a more direct impact on the book!”[\hq]
Velvet Generation by XIG Games
(Campaign Ends : Thursday 12th July 2018; 03:08 UTC)
Starchildren: Velvet Generation was originally published in 2002 and now, thanks to Kickstarter, is looking to return to fight the rock & roll revolution in an all-new edition. Gone is the original card-based mechanic in favour of a new d6 dice-pool mechanism, with a focus on group collaboration.
“A century ago, radio transmissions from Earth passed through a strange ripple in space, causing rock music to fall upon the mystified ears of an alien world. For five glorious years, the aliens grew to love the magical planet they believed to be on the other end of that beautiful signal. When the music cut off as mysteriously as it began, the aliens embarked on a generational pilgrimage to discover the source of that music.
Nearly a century later, the aliens have arrived, but Earth is not what they expected. Humanity has taken a dark turn, silencing music, the arts, literature...any kind of expression they believed could inspire "dangerous" thoughts. The Ministry of Music looms large over the entire world, stamping out rebellious culture with steel-sheathed jackboots.
With nowhere to go but forward, the Starchildren descended, joining the few Earthlings still carrying a spark of rock and roll. They catalyzed a new rock & roll revolution that will break the Ministry's chains on the soul of humanity.
This is the Velvet Generation.”
The Starchildren came on the scene in the form of dreamlike rock idols: luminescent, androgynous and mysterious beings that seem to float in an electric haze of glamour. They do their best to blend in with the drab creatures Earthlings have become since they lost the gift of music. Their very presence on the planet sent a shockwave through the collective subconscious, awakening something long since buried, and neither species will ever be the the same again.
Players portray the renegade rockers of the Velvet Generation, whether they be the alien Starchildren or the Earthlings pining for their lost rock & roll. Start your campaign out as unknown outlaw rockers, seeking out space to rehearse and play while evading the watchful electric eye of the Ministry of Music and spinning lies to get time off from your day job. Join the revolution by allying with the idealistic visionaries of Velvet or the violent hardliners of the Blue Army. Ascend to the leadership of regional and national cells as your band becomes a household name, finally toppling the Ministry of Music with the power of rock & roll.
This iteration uses a completely new rules engine from the 2002 original. The rules allow your group to riff off of one another onstage and off, and the revolutionary campaign system lets you build from game session to game session to fight back against the Ministry of Music to carry out a global rock and roll revolution.
Starship Infernum: a tabletop RPG of Interstellar Survival by Robert Turk
(Campaign Ends : Wednesday 4th July 2018; 23:59 UTC)
Starship Infernum is an easy pick-up and play game of sci-fi survival horror that uses two decks of regular playing cards instead of dice. The game is one of unrelenting horror, with alien monsters, psychological dangers and lots of explosions, all contained in a 108 page digest sized book.
Adventures are usually played out in 2 to 4 hours and the game requires no prep, as the ship layout and obstacles are generated from the deck of cards and crises are determined at the start of play.
Challenges are resolved with a hand of Blackjack, where players only take damage if they bust. Failure creates ‘Rising Tension’ which makes the next test harder, Jokers summon Swarms (mass challenges against the entire crew), Duty Abilities provide each crew member unique bonuses, and players can exhaust relevant traits to adjust their total score or use equipment for one-time bonuses.
The game sounds like it could be a lot of fun and, having backed it myself, I look forward to eventually trying it out!
**********
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
