Pumpkin Spice Joins the Million Dollar Crowdfunder Club

A 'magical cozy RPG'.
There's a couple of current crowdfunders that look like they might join the Million Dollar TTRPG Crowdfunder Club. Free League's Dragonbane: Trudvang looks like a dead cert, and Roll & Play Press (backed by UK Actual Play Mega-Group The High Rollers, who will be appearing at the 02 Arena later this year as part of the D&D Fan Expo) have Altheya: The Dragon Empire, which looks like it is in with a good chance.

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One project which has just passed the million dollar mark is Pumpkin Spice, which describes itself as a 'magical cozy RPG'. Ending in just a couple of days, it's a TTRPG where you run a magical cafe. It's a rules-lite, narrative game in which you play a coven of witches who run the aforementioned magical cafe while protecting the 'Fount of Magic' from those who would corrupt it.

You can play a Hereditary, Green, Coven, Solitary, Secular, or Traditional witch, each with 6 traits and different magical powers. The game comes in a full-colour hardback book, accompanied by a book of adventures. The game also uses special dice called Essence Dice, with each face showing a different Essence. There is, of course, the usual dizzying array of add-on merch which accompanies most million dollar crowdfunders--t-shirts, cards, notebooks, bags, even a vinyl record with a soundtrack for the game.

Pumpkin Spice comes from Italian publisher Acheron Games (Brancalonia, Lex Arcana, Inferno), and runs until 8pm GMT on March 5th.

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Super curious as to the methodology for the media blitz on this one as it was clearly effective. It's existing genres that right now have good cache in many gaming spaces but isnt directly an existing IP.
 

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Super curious as to the methodology for the media blitz on this one as it was clearly effective. It's existing genres that right now have good cache in many gaming spaces but isnt directly an existing IP.
It helps that the average pledge level is about $150. That’s what gets you the million dollar Kickstarters. Having tons of stuff.
 

Do we know anything about the publisher? Anyone play any of their games? I checked out the illustrator, and this looks right up their alley.
I bought their Lex Arcana on a whim last year, and while (of course lol) I haven't actually played it, they had a really interesting mechanic of choosing which dice to role as long as it added to whatever total you needed. Basically single die had higher chance of crit while multiple dice had greater chance of hitting average.
 


I love cozy fantasy, but I can't imagine gaming it. Glad this exists for people who apparently can imagine it!

Yeah that's my response, too. I'm kind of gobsmacked this has such broad appeal.

Who would have thought that so many old white guys who were socially awkward nerds in the late 70s and early 80s would be interested this.

Wait....are you saying that doesn't describe the gaming demographic anymore?
 


That partially answers my question: doesn't it take marketing to get to $1M? I haven't seen peep about this game.

We are definitely looking in different corners of the internet. The game has been widely marketed and it's clear they had a plan to do so. I've seen in on X, Bluesky, Threads, it's blanketed on Facebook and I've seen plenty of adverts on various geek sites.

These people had a marketing budget for sure.
 


I also think people are underestimating the horny quality of this. So, yea, it's 'cozy' but it's got the added hook of scantily clad young women throughout the art. I've seen plenty of people across the internet post things like "I'll never play this but I want to buy it... for reasons.'
 

Recently I've been seeing ads for this every time I open reddit. Every. Time. Obviously ads are targeted, so maybe some people may not see them, but like others I thought it was some AI game like all the others getting pushed in those same ad-spaces. Still not my cup of tea, but more power to those thatre in for it!
 

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