Crowdfunding News: Spheres of Might and Power, Descent into Midnight, and more

This week I review RPG crowdfunding projects that end between March 13 and 19, This is not an exhaustive list as there are a number of RPG zines that are not included here, but it includes a lot of excellent products that deserve a read through.
UPDATED: Included SolSpace: The Spartan Gambit by EN Publishing.

Spheres of Might and Power; 5th edition D&D Supplements by Drop Dead Studios

END DATE: Wed, March 18 2020 1:59 AM EDT.
SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons 5e
PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $35 for the PDFs of both books
EGG’S THOUGHT: This is the most requested RPG crowdfunding project I’ve ever encountered. Multiple dedicated fans requested that this RPG get a boost

“The 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons conversion for the Spheres of Power and Spheres of Might systems! Classes, spells, powers, and skills are the tools we use to tell grand tabletop stories. Spheres of Power and Spheres of Might ... greatly expand what's contained in that tool kit. Populated with entirely new sets of magical and martial powers, Spheres of Power and Spheres of Might will change the way you play magical and martial characters at your table forever! With years of development and experience behind it, the Spheres system is making the jump from Pathfinder to D&D 5th edition in a big way, and bringing tons of amazing options for character creation, world building, and storytelling along with it! Spheres of Power was a new approach to magic written for Pathfinder 1st edition in 2013 that changed the way magic-users and magical worlds were built. It took the 'how's' and 'why's' of magic and placed them into the hands of the players and the game masters, freeing them from the base assumptions of the game and giving them the power to create worlds and characters far beyond its common scope. Spheres of Might was the ENnie-nominated martial book written as a follow-up volume to Spheres of Power, and granted all manner of new tactical prowess to martial characters. With Spheres of Might, combat became much more cinematic, and the abilities of martial combatants expanded to include not only tactical combat where the battlers must out-think each other before landing the final blow, but also expanded what martial characters were capable of outside of combat, granting all manner of powers and abilities one might expect from a real-world knight, scoundrel, or inventor.”

Descent into Midnight by Richard Kreutz-Landry

END DATE: Mon, March 16 2020 2:59 AM EDT.
SYSTEM(S): Powered by the Apocalypse
PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $40 plus S/H for the PDF and hardcover of the book

“A roleplaying game about community, family, and hope on an aquatic world. At its heart, Descent into Midnight is a game about community, family, and hope. It’s a tabletop roleplaying game that takes place in a technologically advanced aquatic civilization whose culture has never been touched by humanity. Bioengineering and psionic, or mental, powers allow the strange and varied species to communicate and interact with their surroundings no matter their physiology. In the game, players take on the roles of guardians, defending their community from a physical, emotional, and even existential threat. The game focuses on the relationships between the guardians, the inhabitants they protect, and their internal struggles and dreams in the face of a corruption that threatens to change their world. Descent into Midnight uses the award-winning Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) system developed by Vincent and Meguey Baker and used in popular roleplaying games like Masks: A New Generation, Monsterhearts, and Headspace. PbtA is a story-focused system that incorporates the best of both narrative and mechanical gameplay. Though players familiar with other PbtA games will have a solid foundation with Descent into Midnight, we have developed the setting and mechanics to inspire your imagination in new and surprising ways.”

Soulbound - Dark Industrial Fantasy by Andi Licht

END DATE: Thu, March 19 2020 6:00 PM EDT.
SYSTEM(S): An original system
PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $9 for the PDF
NOTE: Try the Beta version of the game here

“Soulbound is a tabletop roleplaying game about wielding randomly-generated, arcane weapons which are bound to one’s spirit. These soulbound weapons, or bonds, are tied to their wielder, and once a person is bestowed such a thing their destiny is changed irreversibly. They provide otherworldly power, but with this comes a life that is haunted by bloodshed and misfortune. Wielders are regular humans who have been granted unique weapons with supernatural powers. Soulbound is set in an industrial golden age when, through technology, humans hope to make a safer world where they no longer live fear of these beasts and demons. Cities are vast, rife with the filth of mass production. Their walls tower above the trees, lined with cannons and repellents, only black pillars of smoke rising above them. Within them inventors and tinkers create unstable devices for saving lives or taking those of dreadful monsters. Despite this, all of human knowledge is but a torch in a sea of the unknown. Soulbound is played by rolling varying amounts of six-sided dice and counting the number of 5's and 6's rolled. Many of you may recognize this as a dice pool system, popularized in games such as Shadowrun and Burning Wheel.”

SolSpace: The Spartan Gambit by EN Publishing

END DATE: Mon, March 9 2020 7:54 PM EDT.
SYSTEM(S): WOIN system
PROJECT TYPE: Adventure and sourcebook
MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £15 for the PDFs of the sourcebook, the adventure, and the maps
NOTE: This project is by EN Publishing, the publisher of EN World

"It's Die Hard... on a starship! Can the PCs end the Spartan siege of the USF Copernicus? Plus full deck plans of an entire starship! The Spartan Gambit is a tabletop roleplaying adventure by Russ 'Morrus' Morrissey (EN World, WOIN, Judge Dredd, the ENnies) and Darren Pearce (Doctor Who, Lone Wolf, Shaintar). It takes place on the huge Endeavour Mk I Class XI Cruiser, USF Copernicus, when a raiding party from the Spartan scout Maelstrom takes control of the vessel. Their plan is interrupted when your PCs return from an away mission to find the starship occupied! Can you defeat the Spartans before the villains break into the bridge? The Spartan Gambit is an adventure and sourcebook powered by the WOIN system. If you don't have the core rulebook, you can grab that here too."

Shadow of Mogg - A Post-Brexit RPG Zine.jpg

Shadow of Mogg - A Post-Brexit RPG Zine by Panayiotis Lines

END DATE: Fri, March 13 2020 11:25 AM EDT.
SYSTEM(S): An original system
PROJECT TYPE: RPG zine
MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £12 + £3 US S/H for the PDF and print versions of the zine

“Shadow of Mogg is a post-apocalyptic roleplaying game set in the London underground following a catastrophic occurrence known only as 'the event'. It uses a simple d6 system combined with group and voting resolution mechanics with a focus on survival, OSR style tunnel-crawling and resource management. Players take the role of mostly ordinary members of the British public, whether the oppressed proletariat, a humble baker, a nurse, a firefighter, a time traveller or the Chief Executive of RBS as they eke out survival in an underground society turned inward against itself. The game explores the ramifications of mob rule democracy, the frailty of hope and the banality of evil, also you can play as Candle Stick Maker!”

Starport - Quest For The Dragon Egg by Wider Path Games

END DATE: Wed, March 18 2020 6:00 PM EDT.
SYSTEM(S): An original system
PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $25 for the print version of the book

“A children's chapter book and supplement to Starport - A Tabletop Roleplaying Game For Kids. Starport - Quest For The Dragon Egg is a children's chapter book for readers aged 7-10. The book follows a few normal kids on an amazing adventure through the one-of-a-kind world of Starport (a popular tabletop RPG for kids and their families). In addition to being an expertly written children's chapter book it also acts as a supplement to the popular tabletop RPG for kids (Starport). Throughout the book, anytime the characters encounter a new item or creature, there is a sidebar giving the stats for the creature or item for use in the Starport RPG. There is also an appendix in the back of the book with all new equipment, pets, and creatures.”

Stitches and Stuffing: Lost Soles by James Neumeister

END DATE: Fri, March 13 2020 5:59 PM EDT.
SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons 5e
PROJECT TYPE: RPG zine
MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $12 + $2 US S/H for the PDF and print copies of the zine

“A fluffy D&D Adventure featuring sock puppets, danger and imagination! Stitches & Stuffing: Lost Soles is a D&D 5th edition adventure for four 3rd level characters - would-be heroes tasked with finding and recovering victims of widespread socknapping, unraveling a nefarious plot and returning the principality to its former squeaky clean glory! Welcome to the Principality of Weaves, a wondrous land of hard-working sock folk, fantastic fabric fantasies, and plush pillowy landscapes. In this idyllic linen world, ruled by the benevolent and soft Prince Argyle, the meek socklings live in prosperity and peace - but now something sinister is afoot…”

DM Yourself by Tom Scutt

END DATE: Sat, March 14 2020 12:28 PM EDT.
SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons 5e
PROJECT TYPE: RPG zine
MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £3 for the PDF of the game

“A zine for how to play 5e D&D adventures, solo. DM Yourself is a guide for how to play existing 5e adventures/campaigns (such as The Lost Mines of Phandelver or The Dragon of Icespire Peak) solo with a single character, as close to the way they are written as possible. The aim is to allow players to enjoy these adventures solo with the minimum of preparation, work or additional rules, and maximum immersion.”

RPG Quick Hits

Eat Trash. Be Free. by David Cox

END DATE: Sat, March 14 2020 3:47 PM EDT.
PROJECT TYPE: RPG zine
“A tabletop RPG zine, for ZineQuest 2, where you play as a gang of animals stealing food and garbage from humans in a small town.”

Seance and Sensibility by Finn

END DATE: Fri, March 13 2020 9:40 AM EDT.
PROJECT TYPE: RPG zine
“An RPG set in a fictional Austen inspired world where characters plot to gain social standing and try to stop an eldritch apocalypse.”

UNCONQUERED by Monkey’s Paw Games

END DATE: Sun, March 15 2020 9:09 AM EDT.
“UNCONQUERED is a bronze-age sword & sorcery & sandals & sci-fi tabletop role-playing game about journeys in an infinite universe.”

Mermaids After the End by ELH