RPG Crowdfunding News – Deep Magic 2, Pugmire, Vast Grimm, and more

This week’s article covers RPG crowdfunding projects ending between February 15th and the 23rd. After the holiday slowdown, this weeks features a number of popular projects from Kobold Press, Pinnacle Entertainment, Infinite Black, Onyx Path, Green Ronin, 9th Level Games, and more.

Deep Magic 2: Spellcaster's Emporium for 5th Edition Games from Kobold Press

• END DATE: Fri, February 17 2023 7:00 PM EST.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $129 + S/H for both books in PDF, Roll20, and hardcover in a slipcase, a pin, and you can submit a spell
• TRY BEFORE YOU BUY: Deep Magic 2 Preview
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? As one of the companies that helped to establish 5e with the first official adventure paths, Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, and push back on the deauthorization of the OGL with Project Black Flag, Kobold Press enjoys a special place in the modern gaming market. This can be seen with the massive success of Deep Magic 2, which will end among their Top 3 in number of backers. What are gamers excited about? Magic. This book offers new spells, new magic styles, new subclasses, and an opportunity to submit a spell and have it published. If you need more 5e magic from one of the biggest third party publishers in gaming, this is worth checking out.

Legend of Ghost Mountain from Pinnacle Entertainment Group

• END DATE: Fri, February 17 2023 8:00 PM EST.
• SYSTEM(S): Savage Worlds Adventure Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $150 + S/H for the digital and print boxed set including books, maps, GM screen, bennies, dice, pawns, and more
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Savage Worlds from Pinnacle has a new boxed set, this one focusing on martial arts. This plot point campaign gives you a sacred gate, demons, ghosts, edges, and a boxed set full of great content like books, a GM screen, and essential accessories. This project mixes SWADE with the right level of sensitivity to the subject to bring something epicly wuxia to your gaming table.

Vast Grimm: Into Oblivion from Infinite Black

• END DATE: Fri, February 17 2023 9:00 PM EST.
• SYSTEM(S): Mörk Borg (Vast Grimm variant)
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebooks
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $65 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the three books
• ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Check out my interview with Brian Colin about this campaign
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Grimdark sci-fi horror in the style of Mörk Borg featuring corrupting wyrms consuming humanity even as the galaxy ends, that’s Vast Grimm. This campaign brings three new books with adventures and rules. Among the additions, creating spaceships, which is important in a game that’s about space travel and salvage. If you’re a fan of grimdark sci-fi, this is worth exploring, and it’s essential for Vast Grimm fans.

SIS/TR: A Rare Geometry for Mothership RPG from Severed Books

• END DATE: Sat, February 18 2023 11:00 AM EST.
• SYSTEM(S): Mothership
• PROJECT TYPE: RPG accessory
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $39 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the book and dice
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Mothership rules for an adventure that uses turrets, cubes with displays that let the warden randomize their attack, defense, hack, and retreat modes. In a puzzle ship adventure, this project is a book that’s over 60 pages making the most of these random pieces of defense/offense. It’s a well realized idea and worth checking out the campaign page to learn more about this tool.

Kobolds Ate My Baby! from 9th Level Games

• END DATE: Feb 23, 2023 at 3:30am PST.
• SYSTEM(S): polymorph and BEER ENGINE
• PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $89 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of all three books, digital accessories, and a plush
• ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Check out my interview with Chris O’Neill about this campaign
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Back for the fifth time in 24 years, Kobolds Ate My Baby!, now for the polymorph system. 9th Level Games’ original beer and pretzels RPG returns, this time for one of my favorite systems. polymorph feels old school, it’s easy to use, but offers a lot of gaming options. If you want to play as kobolds defending their dungeon for King Torg (All Hail King Torg!), this is going to speak to your gaming table.

Realms of Pugmire Tabletop RPG from Onyx Path Publishing

• END DATE: Thu, February 23 2023 2:00 PM EST.
• SYSTEM(S): OSR
• PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $55 + S/H for the PDF, POD discount, and print versions of the book
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This campaign brings a clarified, refined core rulebook for Pugmire, the RPG where uplifted dogs (and cats and rodents) inherited the world from humanity. It’s fantasy with a great twist: You’re a good boy! Josh Heath, COO of High Level Games, mentioned running a session of Pugmire in an old veterinary hospital and I can’t stop thinking that’s the perfect dungeon for that world. If you’re into fantasy and want to play as animals, this game brings the right level of detail and OSR rules.

The Oracle Character Generator for Fantasy RPGs from Nord Games

• END DATE: Thu, February 23 2023 4:00 PM EST.
• SYSTEM(S): An original system
• PROJECT TYPE: RPG accessory
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $ + S/H for the PDF and boxed set
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Randomly generate up to 1,000,000,000 different fantasy characters. This set of cards lets you draw and combine original fantasy characters on the fly. Pick from various professions and combine backgrounds to get the right NPCs for your world. If you need random characters on demand, this process promises some original options.

The Fifth Season Roleplaying Game from Green Ronin Publishing

• END DATE: Feb 23, 2023 at 7:00pm PST.
• SYSTEM(S): AGE
• PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $60 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the book
• TRY BEFORE YOU BUY: The Fifth Season RPG Quickstart (Free PDF)
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy, winner of multiple awards including Hugo Awards, is being translated to the AGE system. Green Ronin brings their engine from Dragon Age, Fantasy AGE, Blue Rose, Modern AGE, and The Expanse to recreate N.K.’s world. If you’ve read the books, this project lets you jump into this world and capture the power of this story. Check out the campaign page for a free preview quickstart.

Till Death Do Us Part from Erik Garland & Heidi Gygax

• END DATE: Wed, February 15 2023 7:00 PM EST.
• SYSTEM(S): Advanced Dungeons & Dragons First Edition, Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, and Castles & Crusades
• PROJECT TYPE: Adventure
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $35 (free US S/H) for the PDF and print versions of the book
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? To celebrate the upcoming wedding of Erik Garland and Heidi Gygax, Gary Gygax’s daughter, Erik and Heidi are making their wedding reception guest gift available to all RPG fans. This adventure booklet started life as a simple module that they ran at conventions, but it’s grown with new art and ideas. Coming in at 36 pages, this adventure is designed for the prominent Gygax legacy systems. If you’re interested in a meeting of wedding gifts and D&D, this is an uncommon opportunity.

MaricopaCon X (2023, 10th Year Anniversary!)

• END DATE: Thu, February 16 2023 10:31 AM EST.
• PROJECT TYPE: Tabletop gaming convention
• DATE AND LOCATION: August 25 to 27, 2023 in Phoenix, AZ
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $75 for two badges, two ribbons, and dice
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? In late August in Phoenix comes the 10th anniversary edition of MaricopaCon! Offering tabletop gaming, this time there will be Jim Pinto and James A. Owen are attending as guests. If you’re in the Arizona area in August, this sounds like a fun show to sling dice at.

Level Up: A5E Gate Pass Gazette Annual 2022 from EN Publishing

• END DATE: Thu, February 9 2023 10:52 AM EST.
• SYSTEM(S): Level Up! Advanced Fifth Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £40 + £5 S/H in the United States for the PDF and print versions of the book
• DISCLAIMER: EN World is a subsidiary of EN Publishing
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? I talked about this project in the last two weeks’ columns, but I want to keep fans aware of it. Morrus and company, freed from the immediate OGL concerns (check out the new Level Up! SRD), are bringing 220 pages of new A5E content to your gaming table.

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Egg Embry participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, Noble Knight Games’ Affiliate Program, is an Amazon Associate, and uses a Nord Games affiliate link for their campaign. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG, Noble Knight Games, Amazon, and Nord Games.

 

[EthanSental]

That Deep Magic is pulling on my wizard boot strings to purchase…I have a couple of the first series and used Rune magic in my campaign a couple years ago and the player enjoyed it.

 

[Egg Embry]

Also, are you going to do a separate post on February Zines (ZiMo and ZineQuest)? Or will next week's be sort of massive...?

Good question. The answer is neither, unfortunately. Zine Quest / ZiMo has become too massive to cover it all. February will see the regular column on Wednesday with the RPG zines mixed in. That said, I'll have links to the full list on Kickstarter.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I see a great future for Pugmire franchise, because it has got a great potential to become a multimedia cash-cow. We shouldn't be totally surprised if some big megacorporation wanted the IPs by Onyx Path. If it hasn't happened before it is because 2023 is a year with a lot of economic troubles. Maybe Hasbro should arrive before and to be the first one with the best deal. Or maybe Onyx Path is acquired by Embracer Group, or this in a merger with Paradox Entertaiment.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I see a great future for Pugmire franchise, because it has got a great potential to become a multimedia cash-cow. We shouldn't be totally surprised if some big megacorporation wanted the IPs by Onyx Path. If it hasn't happened before it is because 2023 is a year with a lot of economic troubles. Maybe Hasbro should arrive before and to be the first one with the best deal. Or maybe Onyx Path is acquired by Embracer Group, or this in a merger with Paradox Entertaiment.

Ok, Hasbro buying Paradox and thereby gaining the Onyx Path IPs, including World of Darkness - that wasn't on my 2023 bingo card! But good entertaining speculation

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Yes, I love that type of speculation. Really 2023 is going to be a year with a lot of troubles. We could find some surprise about future mergers or acquisitions. Teorically no megacorporation would dare to an acquisition until after the storm, but if a "littler fish" was enoughly cheap.

 

[Jer]

Ok, Hasbro buying Paradox and thereby gaining the Onyx Path IPs, including World of Darkness - that wasn't on my 2023 bingo card! But good entertaining speculation

I'm like 99.99% certain that Onyx Path is just a licensor of Paradox's WoD properties and not actually owned by Paradox. Which is why there are two WoD game lines - one published by Onyx Path and one now published by Renegade under license (which was originally published by Paradox themselves before they found out that publishing "edgy" RPGs in the days of modern social media is actually hard and maybe someone else should do it for them).

Pugmire, OTOH, is owned wholly by Onyx Path. I think they also acquired both Trinity and Scion from White Wolf before it was completely absorbed into Paradox.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Yeah, Onyx Path doesn't own WoD. At best, it's a Keith Baker situation, with a lot of the Onyx Path people having pre-Paradox ties to the game lines.

 

[zhivik]

The reason why there are two WoD game lines is White Wolf's decision in the early 2000s to end their original WoD series and start a new one, which launched in 2003 and was called New World of Darkness (nWoD) at the time. The idea was that the original WoD lines were all built on the premise that some apocalyptic event is imminent, so White Wolf decided to give players an ending. When Paradox acquired White Wolf, they decided to rename nWoD to Chronicles of Darkness (CoD) to avoid confusion. Paradox also decided to develop new editions of WoD, though it turned out they were better as a publisher than a developer, which is why we are at the current state of affairs.

Onyx Path have produced books for both lines, and they are indeed mostly former White Wolf employees. They were the ones that did the 20th anniversary editions for the main WoD lines, and some supplements for Vampire 5e (i.e. the current edition). It seems that they are no longer getting contracts for WoD books lately - I guess it is all Renegade now - but they are still working on Exalted.

And yes, Onyx Path doesn't own either WoD or CoD. They do own the Storypath system (used for Scion), as well as Scarred Lands and Trinity, and a number of niche RPG series. I have the feeling that this time Pugmire may get more attention, as its first edition went under the radar. Also, they will be completing departing from D&D, as the first edition was published under the OGL, but the new one is going to use its own D20 system. It appears the new system will not be going not too far D&D, so it will feel familiar. I wish them luck, Pugmire is a series that could a big potential, if only more people could hear about it ....

 

[Jadeite]

Pugmire, OTOH, is owned wholly by Onyx Path. I think they also acquired both Trinity and Scion from White Wolf before it was completely absorbed into Paradox.

Pugmire isn't owned by Onyx Path either, but by Eddy Webb's Pugsteady Games.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

And who owns Exalted?