RPG Crowdfunding News – Menagerie of Magic, Trudvang Adventures, Aegis of Empires, and more

This week, I look at crowdfunding projects from Kickstarter and IndieGoGo that end by June 11th. While the list of crowdfunding campaigns is not as high as last week, it’s still respectable. All of the projects are d20 based with several for 5e and Pathfinder as well as Starfinder and OSR.

Menagerie of Magic: A collection of Magic items for DnD 5e from Adam O'Brien

• END DATE: Sat, June 6 2020 12:09 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £12 for the PDF of the book

“A 200+ page compendium of Magical items for use in Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition. This book consists of over 700 magic items for you and your players. Many items will be fine for anyone, but I have included at least 10 items that are exclusive to each race and class. Items range from the rather mundane to fantastical Artifacts, so I am sure you will find something that is perfect for any situation. Additionally, I am including 2 systems that I have been using in my game world for a few years now; Item sets and Spirit Beasts. Item sets are as they sound. A group of items that share a link, each with their own magical properties. Only by using multiple items from a set do you truly unlock the full potential of the items. Spirit beasts are special animals that can be used as mounts. You can summon them at will from another plane of existence and each type of mount has its own abilities and features. The longer you have your mount and the stronger the bond between you, the more abilities and traits you get access to.”

Trudvang Adventures - for 5E by RiotMinds

• END DATE: Wed, June 10 2020 9:00 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Campaign setting
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: SEK 500 + SEK 200 US S/H for both books as PDFs and print

“Trudvang Adventures, a roleplaying game for 5E. For 20 years Trudvang has been a hailed and awarded fantasy setting. In 2017 it was voted "the most anticipated game" by the EN World community. Trudvang Adventures is a game setting for 5E and it is inspired by norse and celto myths, mythologies and folklore with a twist towards the dark and down-to-earth. Whereas many fantasy settings take place in taverns and dungeons, Trudvang adventures is set in deep and dark forests where you will find trolls, lindwurms, grendels and old mysterious places where the elves worshipped their gods that abandoned them, or dark nests filled with treasures long lost. Art and setting is built on classic nordic and celtic sagas such as Kalevala, Beowulf, and all Islandic and Irish oral traditions and tales such as The Ulster Cycle and Mabinogion, not to forget the great work of John Bauer and his alike.”

Aegis of Empires Adventure Path for 5E, Pathfinder 1E and 2E from Legendary Games

• END DATE: Fri, June 5 2020 11:59 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition and Pathfinder 1e and 2e
• PROJECT TYPE: Adventure module
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $100 + S/H for

“A 600-page 6-part Adventure Path for D+D 5E, Pathfinder 1st Edition, & Pathfinder 2nd Edition, set in the epic Lost Lands of adventure. A truly epic adventure saga, Aegis of Empires, is here for 5th Edition DnD, Pathfinder RPG (1st Edition), and Pathfinder Second Edition! This spectacular 600-page fantasy-horror adventure path can be played in any world but is specifically designed for the incredibly detailed Lost Lands Setting (which project lead Greg Vaughan spent nearly a decade perfecting with the classic adventures of Necromancer Games and Frog God Games). Your heroes must trek across the Kingdoms of Foere, Reme, the Vast, and beyond to uncover the clues of an ancient mystery, a lost prince, an expedition to the ends of the earth, and a silent apocalypse stealthily creeping to overwhelm the land, from the start of their careers up to 17th level! This spectacular saga from the powerful pens of Alistair J. Rigg, Jeff Swank, Matt Goodall, Steve Helt, Tom Knauss, Anthony Pryor, and Greg Vaughan includes a 48-page Player's Guide to introduce the history and lore of the region, compatible with all three game systems, and then follows it up with six additional adventures and their appendices full of new magic, monsters, equipment, player handouts, and more.”

SURVIVE THIS!! Fantasy Tabletop RPG 2 Book Kickstarter from Bloat Games

• END DATE: Tue, June 9 2020 9:51 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): SURVIVE THIS!!
• PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $30 for PDF and POD
• NOTE: Check out my interview with Eric Bloat of Bloat Games on d20 Radio

“Fully compatible with SURVIVE THIS!! Zombies!, Dark Places & Demogorgons, and Vigilante City. This Kickstarter is to fund both the Core Rules and Game Master's Guide for SURVIVE THIS!! Fantasy (STF) Tabletop Roleplaying Game. STF mixes old-school sensibilities with modern game design in a d20 based game system. Both Books are Digest Size (6x9) with 70 lbs paper for the Black and White interiors and approximately 200+ pages each. SURVIVE THIS!! is a game system created by Eric Bloat using the Open Gaming License. Created for SURVIVE THIS!! Zombies!, a zombie apocalypse horror RPG, and then overhauled for SURVIVE THIS!! Zombies! 2nd Edition. SURVIVE THIS!! was then utilized for a 1980s setting in Dark Places & Demogorgons and a street-level superhero setting in Vigilante City. SURVIVE THIS!! Fantasy is the fourth iteration of the game line bringing the rules to a traditional fantasy setting while remaining fully compatible with the previous games in the line.”

Starfinder Legacy Bestiary from Rogue Genius Games

• END DATE: Thu, May 28 2020 11:01 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Starfinder
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $22 for the PDFs
• NOTE: Owen KC Stephens, owner of Rogue Genius Games, is a columnist for EN World
• NOTE TWO: This is a continuation of the GameOnTabletop campaign (covered here), this one unlocking stretch goals to improve the product
• NOTE THREE: Try the Starfarer Adversaries: Legacy Bestiary FREE PREVIEW via DriveThruRPG

“A bestiary of monsters for the Starfinder Roleplaying Game, updating and translating classic fantasy creatures from the Legacy era. The Starfinder-compatible book, Starfarer Adversaries: Legacy Bestiary, is a collection of more than 200 classic fantasy monsters, updated for a science-fantasy universe! The Starfinder Roleplaying Game presents a galaxy with the same history and cosmology as the sword-and-sorcery “Fantasy Path” RPG that came before it, but has little room to update what the monsters of that fantasy world have done with access to startravel! The Legacy Bestiary not only updates these “Legacy” creatures to the Starfinder RPG rules, it updates their concepts to account for high-tech and galactic adventure. Mimics as vending machines! Uplifted owlbears! Frost giants wielding cryoweapons! We successfully funded this book already in a different crowdfunding campaign, but fell short of some the stretch goals we were really excited about. So, with the enthusiastic support of our existing backers (and without significantly delaying the project, which is already in layout), we wanted to give fans one more chance to improve the size and scope of this offering. So this book is definitely happening. This campaign is to make it even better! If we hit our funding goal, we’ll add six fully-illustrated undead dinosaurs to the book. Then we’ll set up the next goal, and see how much extra content we can cram into this book!”

The Deck of Many Animated Spells, Tarot and More for 5e from Hit Point Press

• END DATE: Thu, June 11 2020 10:00 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Deck of spells
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $50 + $5 US S/H for the PDF, GIF, and print deck

“Cast your spells and more with style! The Deck of Many Animated Spells, Tarot & More is the long-awaited follow up of our first animated spells campaign. These cards are compatible with 5e and animate to look like you’re actually casting the spell! They are physical cards that animate when tilted. Using the power of lenticular lenses, we've animated these physical cards by creating an 8 framed looping animation that, when tilted, comes to life! The first 5 animated decks in this series have been unlocked as well as all previous Animated Spell Decks! The new decks are Spells Level 6, 7, 8, 9, and an animated Tarot deck! For the first time ever, you will be able to divine with a tarot deck like never before! This deck contains 78 animated cards and tarot booklet. This deck contains all 20 SRD level 7 spells from Arcane Sword to Word of Teleport. Includes 10 spellcraft cards (dry-erasable blank spell cards). This deck contains all 16 SRD level 8 spells from Animal Shapes to Sunburst. Includes 14 spellcraft cards (dry-erasable blank spell cards). This deck contains all 15 SRD level 9 spells from Astral Projection to Wish. Includes 15 spellcraft cards (dry-erasable blank spell cards).”

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RPG QUICK HITS

Terrain Toolbox for 5E from Sneak Attack Press

• END DATE: Thu, June 11 2020 4:00 PM EDT.
• NOTE: Link to this project’s Kicktraq information (here)
• “Bring your encounters to a new level, with encounter building advice, terrain actions, and 48 sample terrains.”

Mystery of Brushgather Farm (Adventure for Pathfinder1&2/5E) from Infinium Game Studio

• END DATE: Mon, June 1 2020 5:04 PM EDT.
• NOTE: Link to this project’s Kicktraq information (here)
• “A chilling one-session adventure featuring a haunted farmhouse and caverns underneath. For Pathfinder 1/P2E and 5E/Fifth Edition.”

Island of Sorrow from Frog God Games

• END DATE: Mon, June 2nd, 2020
• NOTE: This crowdfunding campaign is running on IndieGoGo. Unfortunately, Kicktraq does not track crowdfunding projects on IndieGoGo as of this writing
• NOTE TWO: For those concerned about coverage of a project from Frog God Games, I’m linking the Joint Statement of BJ Hensley and Frog God Games
• “Island of Sorrow is an adventure for characters levels 3-5."

Egg Embry participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program and is an Amazon Associate. These programs provide advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG and Amazon.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Ah the Starfinder Bestiary, I passed when it was on GameOnTabletop. Looks like the Kickstarter has garnered more backers and more money. An interesting A/B experiment between KS and GoT. Also, the art didn't excite me. But reading the description now it sounds like it could be really cool - in what ways have the fantasy monsters from D&D/PF default setting "evolved" to fill those new niches in the space fantasy setting. You had me at "Mimic vending machines"...

 

[Morrus]

It would be very interesting to see an identical project launched on all three major crowdfunding platforms to see how each performs. Problem is, a lot of that depends on how you publicise it, so you’d have to somehow ensure each got exactly equal publicity.

 

[philreed]

Terrain Toolbox looks interesting. I'll be giving that a shot.

 

[philreed]

It would be very interesting to see an identical project launched on all three major crowdfunding platforms to see how each performs. Problem is, a lot of that depends on how you publicise it, so you’d have to somehow ensure each got exactly equal publicity.

Interesting concept. My brain is now turning . . .

 

[Morrus]

Interesting concept. My brain is now turning . . .

You couldn’t guarantee each had equal publicity. You could control your own to an extent, I guess, but you can’t control external publicity and who people link to.

 

[philreed]

You couldn’t guarantee each had equal publicity. You could control your own to an extent, I guess, but you can’t control external publicity and who people link to.

I'm thinking that would be part of the test. What happens if I do zero active promotion? No social media posts at all. No emails. Just allow the platforms to function on their own?

I am 100% certain Kickstarter would perform the best, but I am curious about how things would work out overall.

 

[Morrus]

I'm thinking that would be part of the test. What happens if I do zero active promotion? No social media posts at all. No emails. Just allow the platforms to function on their own?

I am 100% certain Kickstarter would perform the best, but I am curious about how things would work out overall.

True. But if a large news outlet picks one to link to, that skews it. Fans linking to it is organic, so that counts.

One idea I had was that everybody be directed to a landing page rather than one of the campaigns, and that landing page gives links to all three, shown in a completely random order. But again, you can only apply that to your own links.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

True. But if a large news outlet picks one to link to, that skews it. Fans linking to it is organic, so that counts.

One idea I had was that everybody be directed to a landing page rather than one of the campaigns, and that landing page gives links to all three, shown in a completely random order. But again, you can only apply that to your own links.

I'm not sure that skews it. The media outlet links to something because, well, that's either what they heard of first or that's what they are familiar with (for example, Egg lists Kickstarters with the Kicktrackr; I'd assume if he had a choice he'd choose Kickstarter for that feature. Well probably Egg would list a link to all 3 also because he's a good journalist etc etc).

I don't think that invalidates the test, since part of the outcome of the test is which platform "performs" the best.

What happens if I do zero active promotion? No social media posts at all. No emails. Just allow the platforms to function on their own?

I think this would be the way to go. Let each platforms own internal promotional machine do its thing. Of course, you may not make as much money as you would if you also promoted it.