I hope everyone had a great Gen Con last weekend! This week’s list of RPG crowdfunding projects bridge Gen Con giving us a chance to see the before and after affects of the online version of the convention. With D&D projects, a Storypath offering, original content, and a set of fantasy monster squishy toys, there’s a lot to choose from before all of these end on August 20th.
Dragonflight from 2CGaming 
They Came from Beyond the Grave! from Onyx Path Publishing
INSPIRISLES from Hatchlings
The Era Zone 2020, Part 2! from Shades of Vengeance
RPG Squeeze Series 2 – Squishy Dungeon Crawl Critters from Creature Curation
RPG Quick Hits
Super Simple Roleplaying Game from Tom Perrett
- END DATE: Mon, August 17 2020 12:00 AM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $16 for the PDF of the book
“Dragon PCs and NPCs - An Essential Guide to 5th Edition Dragons. Fantasy's most iconic creatures deserve more than a few pages in some monster compendium. This tome of draconic knowledge offers DMs and Players the opportunity to experience dragons deserving of their reputation. Whether its soaring the skies as a dragon character, or building the ultimate draconic NPC for your campaign, Dragonflight delivers. If you love dragons and 5th Edition, this is the book for you! Dragonflight empowers and expands the dragons of 5th edition in every capacity. Through its detailed Dragon Designer, you can fill your game with awe inspiring wyrms that put "standard" dragons to shame. It would take pages to explain every extraordinary features of this system found, so why don't we just show you an awesome preview of what we have so far!”
- END DATE: Thu, August 20 2020 2:00 PM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Storypath System
- PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $55 + S/H for the PDF, POD, and hardcover of the game plus PDF and POD deck of cards
“A dramatic, hammy, and horrifying tabletop roleplaying game encompassing the shock, terror, eroticism, and humor of 1970s horror. They Came from Beyond the Grave! is a dramatic, hammy, and horrifying tabletop roleplaying game encompassing the shock, terror, eroticism, and humor of 1970s horror. This game allows you to play with all the magnificent content from the movies of Hammer, Amicus, and Roger Corman, and promises fun and thrills of the horror movie genre! In They Came from Beyond the Grave! you play humans faced with the horrors of the supernatural. You’ll find yourself pitted against vampires, werewolves, ghosts, and constructed critters, along with demons, slashers, and THE DEVIL HIMSELF. Adventures range from the one-shot exploration of a haunted house, to the multi-era play across the 19th century and 1970s. They Came from Beyond the Grave! contains a mix of serious threat, unmitigated ham, and nonsensical farce. We never tell you what is amusing and what is not, but we do provide you with the tools to make a seriously fun game incorporating all the elements of 1970s horror movies. This game provides rules for funny quips and amusing cinematics for incorporation in a story, along with dozens of special powers and story devices.”
- END DATE: Sun, August 16 2020 7:00 PM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): An original system
- PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £45 + £8 US S/H for the PDF and hardback versions of the book plus more
“Unique Tabletop RPG that teaches Sign Language as you play (BSL/ASL). INSPIRISLES is a completely original tabletop RPG aimed at teenagers. It will promote empathy, life skills and deaf awareness with an emphasis on teamwork and creativity. Play as teens gifted extraordinary powers. Meet famous characters and fearsome monsters from Celtic folklore. Work together to heal a crumbling land and restore a fractured kingdom. Learn British/American Sign Language as you cast spells and solve puzzles. A5 premium-colour hardback with over 150 pages of material, including [a] history of the islands and their Friends, creating your Foundling character, collection of spell, ability and item cards and the tools to invent your own, a host of worldbuilding ideas & mechanics to breathe life into your quests, including using the arts in roleplaying, creating challenging environmental puzzles, alternative ways to earn Belief, rules for Inspired apprenticeships, exploration, downtime and Doom, menagerie of monsters from Celtic folklore & the tools to invent your own, starter adventure: ‘Duster Trials’, stunning art from cover to cover, including maps for locations and encounters, [and] dyslexia friendly fonts throughout to prioritise accessibility.”
The Era Zone 2020, Part 2! from Shades of Vengeance
- END DATE: Sun, August 16 2020 4:00 PM EDT.
- SYSTEM(S): Era d10 Rule Set
- PROJECT TYPE: RPG zine
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £11 for PDFs of issues 1 to 7 of the RPG zines
- NOTE: I did interviews that appear in some of the earlier issues of The Era Zone
“A continuation of the Era Zone, bringing setting neutral and Era-related material to gamers around the world! Each issue of The Era Zone is a 28-page booklet with a full-colour cover. Every issue contains at least one page of content for every published Era game, much of which can be used for other settings in the same genre. Each issue also contains setting-neutral material. The Era Zone is available in Digital and printed (Paperback) formats. Issues #1-4 come as a collection and have a full-colour interior. With The Era Zone, we are bringing you new material for all of our games, as well as some great setting-neutral material which can be applied to any game! We're planning to produce a minimum of 2 more issues this year, containing new ideas, unique material and more!”
RPG Squeeze Series 2 – Squishy Dungeon Crawl Critters from Creature Curation
- END DATE: Fri, August 14 2020 11:59 AM EDT.
- PROJECT TYPE: Squishy toys
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $33 + S/H for “3 Blind Box Squeezes”
- NOTE: I was provided an RPG Squeeze sample product from this line. In terms of the fun factor, it’s a winner
“Classic dungeon crawl monsters in the form of Slow Rise Squishies featuring the Gelatinous Cube, Mimic, and return of Eyegor. Here at Creature Curation we love all monsters, especially cute squishy dungeon crawl critters! And, when we need something to squeeze, we give one of them a squish. Each RPG Squeeze is a blind-box, so you don't know what you are getting! However, as a Kickstarter backer, you will get the chance to pick which monster you want, but the color will still be a surprise! Blind-box is a fun way to get a surprise each time you open a toy. Inside each of our boxes is one amazing RPG Squeeze, and if you're lucky, you may even get one of the rare chase variants limited to only 1 in every 25!”
RPG Quick Hits
Super Simple Roleplaying Game from Tom Perrett
- END DATE: Thu, August 20 2020 1:28 AM EDT.
- “A streamlined, rules light roleplaying game.”
- END DATE: Fri, August 14 2020 12:00 PM EDT.
- “A Reprint of The Deck of Many Things by Cometkins! The same vibrant, mysterious artwork that you know and love with new rewards!”
- END DATE: Wed, August 19 2020 4:00 PM EDT.
- “A set of condition chips for the 5th edition, allowing players and dungeon masters to track their various afflictions with ease!”
- END DATE: Tuesday, 8/11/2020
- NOTE: For those concerned about coverage of a project from a subsidiary of Frog God Games, I’m linking the Joint Statement of BJ Hensley and Frog God Games
- NOTE TWO: This campaign is on IndieGoGo
- “An introductory-level adventure for 5e, Pathfinder 1e, and Swords & Wizardry by Bill Webb!”
