RPG CROWDFUNDING NEWS – OSRIC 3, Cloud Empress, ShadowWest, and more

This week, I sample TTRPG crowdfunding projects that conclude between May 29 to June 4. These include a revised version of AD&D, drinks for your players, zines, a fun western RPG, a callback to the old TMNT RPG, and more.

OSRIC 3 from Mythmere Games

• END DATE: Jun 4, 2025 at 6:00pm EDT.
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
• SYSTEM(S): OSR
• PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $150 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of 5 books and GM screen plus additional PDFs and VTT pack
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? OSRIC is the original retro-clone of AD&D. The latest edition of this game is a reorganiztion that gets the ruleset back to its AD&D roots. You’ll find more examples of play, easier to digest rules, new artwork, more original content with better explanations, and more. This version removes the Open Gaming License, and provides a license for third-party publishers to base their products on OSRIC 3. Offering a Player Guide, GM Guide, 3 adventures, and a GM screen, you’ll get everything you need for fans that love old school 1e, but want the rules to be better formatted and organized. If you’re curious about a detailed list of what this edition adds, check out the Backerkit campaign page for a detailed list of the changes from OSRIC 2 to this version.

The Adventurer's Guide to Alchemy from Misfit Hobbies

• END DATE: Sun, June 1 2025 1:00 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): System neutral
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £70 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of both books
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Does D&D stand for “Dice & Drinks” at your gaming table? If so, this book might speak to your players with its offering of cocktails and mocktails to inspire your game. This recipe book includes fantasy gaming inspired drinks and adventures that tie to them. You’ll get The Adventurer’s Guide to Alchemy with the recipes and the Companion Adventure book with adventures to tie to the drinks. If the combination of a drink and some gaming appeals to you, this book may be right for your next adventure.

Cloud Empress: Stories From the Slip from worlds by watt

• END DATE: May 29, 2025 at 6:00pm EDT.
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
• SYSTEM(S): Mothership 1E (Cloud Empress Panic Engine variant)
• PROJECT TYPE: RPG zine
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $30 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the 3 zines and a patch
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This zine expands on Cloud Empress, the Ennie Award-winning ecological sci-fi RPG inspired by Nausicaa. Using a variant of the Mothership engine, you’ll play as eco warriors fighting in a dying world. This campaign offers several RPG zine expansions, In Ballad of the Blooming Blade, In Bodyhopping in Polite Society, and Cloud Empress Almanac, Vol. 2. If you’re a fan of the game, you can find these zines as well as links to some free PDFs on the Backerkit campaign page.

ShadowWest from Fox and Boar Games

• END DATE: Fri, May 30 2025 8:57 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Shadowdark RPG
• PROJECT TYPE: Core sourcebook (“You do need the Shadowdark RPG […] to use this book.”
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $49 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of both books
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Do you want to play a western, but with the Shadowdark RPG rules? ShadowWest takes the wild, dark fantasy con game energy of the original RPG and re-envisions it as a western. Within these 70 pages, you’ll find supernatural darkness, and the rules you’ll need to bring the wild west to your gaming table. In addition, you’ll find the 20-page adventure zine, Saggie's Dimestore Novel 1: Thrilling Adventures. If you like westerns and Shadowdark, this campaign is worth a review.

Mutants From the Archives: Pet Shop Blues from Julian Kay (aka ARBco)

• END DATE: Wed, June 4 2025 11:59 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Mutants In The...
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $22 + S/H for the PDF and print of the book
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Do you like the concept of the 1980s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles RPG, but want a modern ruleset? Did you enjoy creating your mutants as much as you enjoyed playing them? Then the Mutants In The… series may speak to you. The original books, Mutants in the Now and Mutants in the Next, recreated the wonder of Palladium Books’ 1985 game while giving an easier to use gaming engine. This sourcebook adds new anthropomorphic options to your game with 140 new species of breeds of animals, mix and match options, new setting details, and more. If you miss the TMNT RPG, this one may scratch that itch.

Legendary Strongboxes for D&D from Jerry Joe Seltzer

• END DATE: Fri, May 30 2025 1:10 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $4 for the PDF of the book
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Do you want the final battle in your adventures to be the characters opening their treasure chests? This book offers clever ways to make the strongboxes that the best rewards come in harder to open. Designed for every character level, these containers will make each combat victory just one step in the journey to claim their reward. If you’re interested in a puzzle that will make your player’s think, this may speak to your gaming table.

Mad As Hell - An Anti-Capitalist Demonhunting RPG from SoulMuppet Publishing

• END DATE: Sun, June 1 2025 11:00 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): “Mad As Hell uses the base mechanical chassis shared by many other SoulMuppet games, like Orbital Blues, Paint The Town Red and Best Left Buried, and adds on a swathe of new rules and toolkits to fit the genre.”
• PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £50 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the core rulebook and The Field Guide to Hell on Earth (Vol 1)
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? The premise for this will speak to some gamers: “The evils of capitalism have torn holes in the fabric of the world, allowing demons to hunt the vulnerable and make life hell.” In this game, you deal with the fallout of capitalism, demons. They’re here and you have to defeat them. If you’re looking for a reason to fight demons in order to save your community, this RPG may speak to you.

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[Whizbang Dustyboots]

For ORSIC 3, I say this more tongue in cheek but it took 3 editions to get it back to its AD&D roots…and we got try AD&D a hard time for organization skills back in the day I’ve got the 1st edition pdf for a campaign we played for 8 to 10 sessions and then it fizzled out….dm got tired/bored or something and we as players weren’t getting into his home brew and fell apart.

I have nothing but love for AD&D -- I'm almost certainly going to snag one of the GameStop dice towers based on the PHB cover, despite not really wanting more "stuff" and not being that interested in dice towers -- but I mostly would mine it for vibes.

Actually having to consult to-hit and saving throw matrices feels like the kind of thing that I would get tired of within an hour, to say nothing of the game's other eccentricities.

I am tempted by OSRIC, just because, but if I don't want to play OSE because of its TSRisms, I have a hard time imagining OSRIC, which has even more of them, getting me to use it at the table, which is my criteria for 99% of game purchases nowadays.

 

[Lalato]

Here are the 5e Campaign Setting and Adventure Path crowdfunding campaigns I'm keeping an eye on right now.

Closed and Funded:

• Treasure in the Badlands
• Heroes Assemble
• Kami Gear: The Iron-tongued Engine (2 days)

Closed:

Open and Funded:

• Dawn of Heroes (1 week)
• Unbound Realms (3 weeks)
• Sirensong (3 weeks)
• The World's Largest Dungeon (4 weeks)

Open:

• Heart of Darkness (88%, 2 weeks)

 

[Giantrollorc]

Giantrollorc, do you plan on using OSRIC as the primary interpretation of the rules or the original 1e rulebooks? I'm curious which will be present at your gaming table?

Both sets of books will be present at my table. OSRIC is primarily used for our newer players, but I definitely use OSRIC also even as a 40+ year 1e veteran.

 

[Kestrel]

I went searching for the old TMNT books a few years back and found them to be horrendously expensive. The Mutants in the... series is perfect! Thanks!

 

[aramis erak]

The Mutants in the... series really intrigues me, but as I recall, we only ever rolled up characters for the Palladium games and never played them. Not that that necessarily means we didn't have fun with the books.

I've run a few sessions of TMNT... It was fun, at the time, but char gen took too long... mostly due to copying skills down. Palladium's combat mechanics can be quite fun, but also wind up being highly cinematic.

I've not heard much about the mechanics of the Mutants in the ___ series. SOmeone care to give a briefing on the mechanics?

 

[Sossij]

I've run a few sessions of TMNT... It was fun, at the time, but char gen took too long... mostly due to copying skills down. Palladium's combat mechanics can be quite fun, but also wind up being highly cinematic.

I've not heard much about the mechanics of the Mutants in the ___ series. SOmeone care to give a briefing on the mechanics?

My understanding is that it's kind of a retroclone of TMNT, but I haven't picked it up yet, so that's all the help I can give.

 

[Zarithar]

Now that the remastered TMNT is soon to be released... there's really no reason to play the "Mutants in the" series. I did pick up one of the books and for the most part it was just pages and pages of stats for animals that most people will never play.
I'm stoked about the new OSRIC release as well as ShadowWest though.

 

[Zarithar]

I've run a few sessions of TMNT... It was fun, at the time, but char gen took too long... mostly due to copying skills down. Palladium's combat mechanics can be quite fun, but also wind up being highly cinematic.

I've not heard much about the mechanics of the Mutants in the ___ series. SOmeone care to give a briefing on the mechanics?

It's literally TMNT and Other Strangeness and/or After the Bomb with the serial numbers filed off.

 

[aramis erak]

It's literally TMNT and Other Strangeness and/or After the Bomb with the serial numbers filed off.

In which case, I've no need of it.