This week’s TTRPG crowdfunding sampler covers campaigns that end between March 29 to April 4. The spotlights this article include a Heart: The City Beneath RPG adventure campaign, a Ironsworn: Starforged expansion, a 5e sourcebook created by legendary creators, a book of 5e rewards beyond magic items and XP, a full 5e system that’s without spells set in the Stone Age, the 10th anniversary of Cats of Catthulhu, and four Old-School Essentials sourcebooks that offer modern settings for your OSR games.
Dagger in the Heart from Rowan, Rook and Decard
Sundered Isles - Expansion for Ironsworn: Starforged from Tomkin Press
Surviving Strangehollow: Hand-painted 5E by a Legendary Team from Accidental Cyclops
Tome of Intangible Treasures from Lone Colossus Games
Cats of Catthulhu 10th Anniversary Edition from Mr.Joel
Born from Ice: Stone Age Role-Playing (5e) from Small Cog Creative
Modern Necessities: Modern setting rules for OSE from The Scrying Dutchman
Planestrider's Journal for Level Up A5E and D&D 5E from EN Publishing
Egg Embry participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, Noble Knight Games’ Affiliate Program, and is an Amazon Associate. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG, Noble Knight Games, and Amazon.
Dagger in the Heart from Rowan, Rook and Decard
- END DATE: Mar 29, 2024 at 11:00am EDT.
- CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
- SYSTEM(S): Heart: The City Beneath RPG
- PROJECT TYPE: Adventure
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £60 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the adventure, GM screen, and GM booklet
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Your characters are on a journey aboard the Delving Machine. The monstrosity is digging, taking your characters through “rock, blood, bone, space, time and reality, towards the scintillating terror of a crimson eternity.” While your characters dig, there are those trying to take control of the machine, each for their own purposes. This campaign length adventure for Heart: The City Beneath puts you in the driver’s seat of a machine that is boring into the great beyond. Don’t let go of the wheel or you’ll be left behind. This project uses the same engine as Spire: This City Must Fall, the Resistance System, recipient of a number of awards and beloved by its fanbase. If you want to own a full campaign adventure for Heart, one that offers imagery and challenges that your table will enjoy, check out the Backerkit campaign page for a link to the free quickstart rules.
Sundered Isles - Expansion for Ironsworn: Starforged from Tomkin Press
- END DATE: Thu, April 4 2024 8:00 PM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Ironsworn: Starforged
- PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $39 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the book plus deck of cards
- AI STATEMENT: “Sundered Isles does not use AI-generated art or content.”
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This project brings the Age of Sail complete with fantasy ships and steampunk options to the Ironsworn ruleset. Designed for small group, GM round robin, or solo play in order to tell tales of the sea, pirates, and treasure, this sourcebook is right for anyone wanting more water-based adventures. This sourcebook uses the Ironsworn: Starforged variant, available via this campaign for those that don’t already own it. The book is 250 pages printed spiral bound so it’ll lay flat on your gaming table. Each of the Ironsworn rulesets offer modular content including system agnostic random tables making these books ideal for fans looking to cherry pick the best content for their games. Want to sample this project? The campaign page has a free preview download of Sundered Isles and/or a rules primer for Starforged, depending on your tastes.
Surviving Strangehollow: Hand-painted 5E by a Legendary Team from Accidental Cyclops
- END DATE: Thu, April 4 2024 11:00 AM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $65 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the book
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Read “Surviving Strangehollow: Shawn Merwin Talks About Legendary Artists And Designers” at EN World
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This book offers three major selling points: Emily Hare’s inspiring artwork, legendary creators such as Ed Greenwood, Dan Dillon, Shawn Merwin, and Elisa Teague, and new player content as well as new 5e rules. Surviving Strangehollow is a third party 5e sourcebook that has new subclasses, new spells, and a new class in addition to new rules for non-combat dangers, wilderness exploration, character transformation, and more. That’s to say there’s a lot of “new.” All of these ideas spring from a list of all-star 5e creators, many who have worked for Wizards of the Coast during their careers. All of this content is wrapped in a setting and artwork that recalls Labyrinth, The Last Unicorn, the warmth of David Wenzel’s The Hobbit artwork, and Alice in Wonderland. If you’re looking for new 5e mechanics, many from “official” WotC creators, this campaign deserves a click.
Tome of Intangible Treasures from Lone Colossus Games
- END DATE: Apr 4, 2024 at 4:00pm EDT.
- CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
- SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $25 for the PDF of the book
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This 5e tome offers rewards to players beyond XP and magic items: Over 450 story based presents for their characters. You can provide “boons, blessings, charms, pacts, titles, histories, advanced trainings” to give the characters a benefit other than treasure or a new character level. I like the idea of rewards that aren’t magic items and aren’t random OP crunch. If you’re curious about those options, they’re offering a free 17-page PDF via the Backerkit campaign page.
Cats of Catthulhu 10th Anniversary Edition from Mr.Joel
- END DATE: Wed, April 3 2024 11:59 PM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): An original system
- PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $89 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the core rulebook, adventures, dice, dice tray, cat toy, and so much more
- TRY BEFORE YOU BUY: Cats of Catthulhu 10th Anniversary PREVIEW is free at DriveThruRPG
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Mythos cats, ten years later. This is for the true cat enthusiasts of the world. Why? In order to play this TTRPG, your suspension of disbelief requires that you buy into this premise: Other animals are in Chaos Cults and you, a cat, are secretly defending humanity. The core rulebook is 300 pages giving rules light options and setting information. If you have a cat character in you that can be both a cat and save others, this game awaits. Is this right for your gaming table? If you believe that cats are secret heroes, check out Cats of Catthulhu.
Born from Ice: Stone Age Role-Playing (5e) from Small Cog Creative
- END DATE: Tue, April 2 2024 11:59 PM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook and sourcebooks
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $95 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of all three books
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Read my interviews with Loren Small of Small Cog Creative at EN World and GeekNative
- TRY BEFORE YOU BUY: Born from Ice: Stone Age Roleplaying Quickstart Guide and Born from Ice: Stone Age Roleplaying - Blood and Clay (5th Level Adventure) are free at DriveThruRPG
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Set in Earth’s Stone Age, this is a magic-less 5e in which the world is young and dangerous. No magic, reduced power creep at higher levels, monsters pulled from what paleontologists discover, and more, this is a different take on 5e. Coming as three books, one offers a full ruleset, another contains the setting, and a third has a campaign for levels 1 to 20. If the idea of a fully realized, magic-free, deadly version of 5e appeals to you, check out this campaign.
Modern Necessities: Modern setting rules for OSE from The Scrying Dutchman
- END DATE: Sun, March 31 2024 9:00 AM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Old-School Essentials
- PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebooks
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: €29 for the PDF and POD discount versions of all four books
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? 4 books (or 1 omnibus, if that stretch goal is reached) that imagine OSE for modern and near-future settings. Modern Necessities: Professional Edition is 150 pages providing all of the weapons, vehicles, enemies, and magic you’d need for a B/X style game set in today’s world. Single Action offers rules and options to bring the weird west to OSE. Cutting Edge does the same for cyberpunk. Bunker in the Badlands is an adventure set in a magic apocalypse. As mentioned in my recent interview with Michael Tresca, I’m working on a B/X set in the 1970s, so getting to see another creator’s approach to modern settings using OSE is a win for me as a creator. If you’re an OSR fan, these books open up some new gaming options and they’re worth your review.
Planestrider's Journal for Level Up A5E and D&D 5E from EN Publishing
- END DATE: Thu, April 4 2024 6:00 PM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Level Up! Advanced 5th Edition and Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £40 for 3 PDFs and VTTs
- DISCLAIMER: EN World is a subsidiary of EN Publishing
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Level Up! Advanced Fifth Edition needs options to travel to other planes of existence. This campaign provides 30 planes to explore via the 260-page Planestrider's Journal and the 50-page Captain Cobalt's Codicil. If the idea of traveling to other planes of existence aboard your planefaring ship sounds like a fun time, this campaign awaits.
Egg Embry participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program, Noble Knight Games’ Affiliate Program, and is an Amazon Associate. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG, Noble Knight Games, and Amazon.
