RPG CROWDFUNDING NEWS – Northlands, Tales from Elsewhere, and more

In this article, you’ll read about campaigns for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition (2024), Tales of the Valiant, Pathfinder 2e, Pirate Borg, and original systems.

Northlands: Norse Adventures for D&D 2024 and ToV from Kobold Press

• END DATE: Fri, October 3 2025 6:00 PM EDT.
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Kickstarter
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition (2024) and Tales of the Valiant
• PROJECT TYPE: Adventure
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $129 + S/H for the PDF and hardcovers of Tales of the Valiant: Northlands Worldbook and Northlands Sagas plus the rune card deck and the sunstone rune tiles
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Another Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition (2024) and Tales of the Valiant sourcebook from Kobold Press, and that’s a good thing! This company produces some of the best 5e products in tabletop. Great art, writing, and playtesting, you’re getting professional, clean work. In this case, the books take you to their far north, frozen, Norse-inspired setting, The Northlands. These books detail details the rules, the cultures, the dangers, and the adventures your players will find when they venture into the white wastes. If you’re a fan of Tales of the Valiant or Norse-like 5e fantasy settings with high productions values, this Kickstarter link is worth the trip.

Tales from Elsewhere: Clockworld - Action Horror RPG from Tales from Elsewhere

• END DATE: Thu, October 2 2025 11:00 AM EDT.
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Kickstarter
• SYSTEM(S): An original system
• PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $60 + S/H for the PDF and hardcover versions of the core rulebook
• ADDITIONAL REPORTING: You can find my upcoming interview with Peter Lange about this game here
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Let’s look at another Weird West game. At Gen Con 2025, I played Tales from Elsewhere: Clockworld with creator Peter Lange, and it is a fun, fast Weird West option. A century ago, the world ended and only a small bit with guns and the ability to create guns survived. Somewhere in the Wild West, a limited steampunk patch of land and culture made it through the apocalypse. A century later, these tough pioneers are ready to explore beyond their borders, to try to reclaim the wider Earth for human rule. In their path of terrors, steampunk abominations, and horrors formed from unknowable evils. Using a d10 + Skill engine, there’s a bit of Cyberpunk 2020 in its core, though the deeper ruleset and gameplay are its own. The result is a deadly game of camping, rustling, and shootouts defined by an easy to understand ruleset combined with an unknowable setting. After playing this game, I can’t recommend the Kickstarter enough. If you want Weird West with an easy to understand game and worldbuilding from the Youtube creator behind the Tales from Elsewhere channel, this wanted poster is for you.

Our Brilliant Ruin Starter Set from Studio Hermitage

• END DATE: Thu, October 2 2025 5:00 PM EDT.
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Kickstarter
• SYSTEM(S): An original system
• PROJECT TYPE: Starter boxed set
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $150 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of starter set, core rulebook, and 5-volume magazine
• TRY BEFORE YOU BUY: The core rulebook PDF is free at DriveThruRPG
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? At Gen Con 2025, I played another mindblowing steampunk game: Our Brilliant Ruin. This steampunk world of magic and mystery focuses on the upstairs-downstairs drama of a world with forces beyond our comprehension. While some players take the roles of the noble class, others toil in their employ, which is where the adventure comes in. You’ll face Victorian strangeness and cosmic horror as you work to keep your station and dignity among your peers and betters. Putting you a rung down the ladder gives this game a unique feel, and it’s well worth checking out. If you want the starter set, check out this Kickstarter page.

Tendrils of Power: An adventure for 5e and PF2 from Beyond the Horizon

• END DATE: Fri, October 3 2025 4:00 AM EDT.
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Kickstarter
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition (2024) and Pathfinder Second Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Adventure
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: €5 for the PDF version of either the 5e or the PF2e ruleset for the adventure
• DISCLAIMER: Kim Frandsen was my editor at d20 Radio. I am not involved in this project
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This is a cult-stomping adventure for 3rd and 4th level characters. In Tendrils of Power, your players will find a busy port, a cult whose power and influence are growing, and an old friend that asks for your help in hunting down their leader. There are layers to this hunt as the enemy leader will not be taken down so easily. Offering rules for either Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition (2024) or Pathfinder Second Edition, you’ll get to play this the way you want to. In case you played it before, this adventure includes a tie-in to the Tomb of the Undying Empress, but you don’t have to play the first adventure to use this one. If you’re a fan of defeating cults, then make the ultimate sacrifice and head over to this Kickstarter page for more details.

Black Market Guide to Immortality (A 5e/PF2e Sourcebook) from Nine Heavens Press

• END DATE: Oct 3, 2025 at 2:59am EDT.
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition (2024) and Pathfinder Second Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $59 + S/H for the PDF, VTT, and print versions of this book
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Black Market Guide to Immortality is a 250-page sourcebook full of magic items and fresh legends built upon Asian mythology. Created by the designers of Undying Corruption, this project offers East Asian-inspired lore and more for both Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition (2024) and Pathfinder Second Edition. This sourcebook provides 5 ancestries, 13 subclasses, over 50 monsters, NPCs with plot hooks, and a campaign with story-based level progression. No XP tracking, you’ll level at certain key moments in time for the next challenge. If you’re a fan of 5e and PF2e and East Asian mythology, this Backerkit campaign awaits.

Three from the Locker from SkeletonKey Games

• END DATE: Tue, September 30 2025 2:00 PM EDT.
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Kickstarter
• SYSTEM(S): Pirate Borg
• PROJECT TYPE: Adventure pamphlets
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $20 + S/H for PDF and print versions of the 3 pamphlets
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This campaign offers 3 Pirate Borg as pamphlet adventures. Pamphlets are one-page adventures with tight plots and impressive layouts in order to achieve so much in such a limited amount of real estate. The three pamphlets are titled Blood in the Water (what happens when your ship sinks? This pamphlet provides 6 scenarios with sharks, debris, mermaids, and more), Raise the Black (rules for pirate flags and their effects), and Sweet Tusk (an abandoned sugarcane plantation haunted by pigfolk). These adventures range from recurring locals to new rules for intimidation in combat and dealing with the aftermath of your ship sinking. If you like Pirate Borg and want some important gameplay options (rules for your ship going down are important), this Kickstarter will be your treasure.

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[Dire Bare]

This might be the first Kobold crowdfunder that I take a pass on . . .

Partly because I'm not sure I need a new version of the Northlands of Midgard, although I'm sure this will be well done . . .

But I was turned off by the 5E, ToV, and D&D Beyond versions all being separately priced. How different is the 5E versus ToV versions of these books? I understand that D&D Beyond has its own development costs, but you couldn't throw in the PDF with it?

$100 bucks for the 5E PDF and DDB combo, does not include the ToV PDFs. That's a lot. The 5E PDFs alone are $40 for the set of books.

During the OGL crisis, when Kobold launched Tales of the Valiant, I felt like I got it and appreciated the "5E alternative", but now . . . I wonder what the point is.

Perhaps the pricing is fair and reasonable considering rising costs and paying Kobold's staff living, competitive wages . . . but it isn't sitting well. I've got a couple of weeks to mull it over . . .

 

[mamba]

I was turned off by the 5E, ToV, and D&D Beyond versions all being separately priced. How different is the 5E versus ToV versions of these books?

The adventure book is the same book for 5e and ToV, the world book with subclasses, monsters, etc. will be different for the two.

That is why there are two bundles and the world book is available separately, in case you want both world books.

I understand that D&D Beyond has its own development costs, but you couldn't through in the PDF with it?

there is a bundle, outside of that, no. That is the downside of DDB, it has its separate development cost paid to a separate company. When you buy the printed book, the PDF is essentially a free addon, as the document is created already, for DDB it cannot be that.

During the OGL crisis, when Kobold launched Tales of the Valiant, I felt like I got it and appreciated the "5E alternative", but now . . . I wonder what the point is.

keep independence from WotC, in case something happens again? Also, I do not like 2024, for anyone not moving to 2024, the ToV version is the right one, whether you use 2014 or ToV (according to the Kobolds)

 

[Agamon]

It was bad timing for me. My last campaign took place in the Northlands and by the end, I was like, I am very much done with snow and vikings...then they announced this a month later lol

 

[Marc Radle]

The adventure book is the same book for 5e and ToV, the world book with subclasses, monsters, etc. will be different for the two.

That is why there are two bundles and the world book is available separately, in case you want both world books.


there is a bundle, outside of that, no. That is the downside of DDB, it has its separate development cost paid to a separate company. When you buy the printed book, the PDF is essentially a free addon, as the document is created already, for DDB it cannot be that.


keep independence from WotC, in case something happens again? Also, I do not like 2024, for anyone not moving to 2024, the ToV version is the right one, whether you use 2014 or ToV (according to the Kobolds)

All very well said and pretty accurate to boot!

 

[kapars]

I read the preview and that Viking subclass seems like a mess. I don’t find the Kobold Press subclass designs balanced at all and they just seem to get a pass on it while WotC is scrutinized for better or worse.

 

[Marc Radle]

It was bad timing for me. My last campaign took place in the Northlands and by the end, I was like, I am very much done with snow and vikings...then they announced this a month later lol

LOL - no worries!
You can always pick the book(s) up when you get the itch to play in the Northlands again!

 

[Marc Radle]

Hello, everyone!

Northlands has passed its 200k stretch goal: the Mossback Raiders adventure, which is loosely connected to events in the previously unlocked adventure, The Raven's Call.

Check out the new KS Update to learn more!