RPG Crowdfunding News – The Griffon’s Saddlebag, Fading Suns, World Wide Wrestling, and More

This week I look at RPG crowdfunding projects that end between April 10th and 16th. This sampling includes projects that run on D&D 5e, Pathfinder, Starfinder, Powered by the Apocalypse, and more from first time creators to companies like Ulisses Spiele.

For seven of these projects, I include Kicktraq’s funding information. Why share that? Because I see the number of new RPG crowdfunding campaigns have slowed since the societal impacts of COVID-19 have manifested. I’ve read fans questioning if people are backing these projects. There’s an impression that crowdfunding projects will not succeed during the pandemic. As best I can, I want to share a picture of the health of RPG crowdfunding to see if that’s an accurate view or not.

Seven of the eight projects I highlight with images and longer quotes are exceeding their goals. I include four under “RPG Quick Hits” that have not reached their goals as of this writing to give a fuller picture of how RPG crowdfunding projects are doing. While this is information is only a snapshot in time, there is more success than failure and, despite the extremities of COVID-19, RPG crowdfunding is not over.

That said, the situation is evolving and I’m not advocating for every RPG publisher to launch a new Kickstarter, Indiegogo, or GameOnTabletop campaign. At the same time, publishers should not save their campaigns only to flood the crowdfunding sites with more games than the market can bear once the all clear is given. There’s a fine line that needs to be considered.

More Magic items for 5e: The Griffon's Saddlebag | Book One by Griffin Macaulay

• END DATE: Sat, April 11 2020 10:59 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $40 + $10 US S/H for the PDF and hardcover versions of the book

“A 200-page compendium of 365 game-ready, illustrated items and more for 5th edition. Give out better treasure! The Griffon's Saddlebag is a hobby-turned-career passion project that releases new magic items (and other content) for 5th edition every day. This daily content is released on Instagram, Twitter, and Reddit, and is made possible by the support of people like you through Patreon. This 200+ page book is a compendium of every item made in the Saddlebag's first year, including 365 game-ready, illustrated magic items, 12 new character subclasses, 2 new settings, and an evil villain that can be easily added into your favorite ongoing campaigns. This content is written and designed following the existing standards and precedents set by the official 5e materials to make it easier to read and integrate into your games.”

Fading Suns: Pax Alexius by Ulisses Spiele

• END DATE: Tue, April 14 2020 9:00 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Fading Suns
• PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebooks
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: €230 + €14 US S/H for at least 8 PDFs and 8 printed books plus a token set

“Fading Suns returns with a glorious new edition! The classic far-future passion play role-playing game is back in spectacular color! The three Core Books for Fading Suns are the Universe Book, Character Book, and Gamemaster Book. The Universe Book (112 pages) presents the setting for Fading Suns: its history, society, and astro-geography. Herein you will encounter nobles, priests, guilders, aliens, psychics, cyborgs, and more. The Character Book (272 pages) presents the game system and player characters for Fading Suns. This book includes character creation rules for all the major factions, as well as technological equipment, starships, psychic powers, and theurgic rites. The Gamemaster Book (96 pages) presents people, places, and plots for Fading Suns. Herein are guidelines for creating dramas for the player troupe and how to populate them with all manner of non-player-character allies, rivals, and foils. An example drama is included, as well as a roll-by-roll description of play.”

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Britannia and Beyond, a regional guide for Cthulhu Invictus by Golden Goblin Press

• END DATE: Mon, April 13 2020 12:00 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Cthulhu Invictus
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $20 for the PDF of the book

“A guide to the province of Britannia, with notes on the barbarian kingdoms of Caledonia (Scotland) and Hibernia (Ireland). Welcome to Britannia and Beyond! A regional guide for the Cthulhu Invictus™ setting detailing the province of Britannia, and the barbarian lands of Caledonia and Hibernia. This well researched and comprehensive guide will provide keepers everything they need to take their Cthulhu Invictus campaign to the province of Britannia, and possibly beyond. The book covers a detailed history of Britannia, from pre-history to the end of the Antonine Period of the Roman Empire (180 CE). Details on Britannia’s climate, geography, natural resources, and economy. Information on the Roman government, including the military legions stationed there, including both past and current client kingdoms. Tips for creating characters living in Britannia, from Roman settlers, to Romano-Celtic natives (Latinized natives), and native Celts, with a list of Celtic names and gender-naming conventions. A guide to the province of Britannia by region, describing its distinct cultural outlook, the tribes native to the region (and their attitudes towards Rome), important cities and towns, notable sites, sinister seeds, mythos threats, and more. Information on the religion, folklore, myths, magic, temples, and sacred sites associated with Britannia, including Druidism and new rules for creating Druid characters. The Britannia Bestiary, a listing of the native plants and animals, as well as mythos entities drawn from traditional folklore viewed through cosmic horror colored glasses. The Dark Gods of Britannia, a discussion of the most iconic Great Old Ones and Outer Gods found across the province, including Eihort, Gla'aki, Y’golonac, Byatis, Yegg-Ha, The Keeper of the Moon Lens, and more.”

World Wide Wrestling: Second Edition by ndp design

• END DATE: Tue, April 14 2020 12:59 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Powered by the Apocalypse
• PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $38 + $10 US S/H for the PDFs and print versions of the book and cards

“The next chapter for the professional wrestling roleplaying game of narrative action! World Wide Wrestling: Second Edition combines all of the material from the original World Wide Wrestling RPG, the International Incident supplement, the digital supplements, including The Road and the Extended Universe Gimmicks, and more into one streamlined, updated game that supports both quickly getting to the action and long-term dynamic exploration of the promotion around the wrestlers. In World Wide Wrestling, you play wrestlers competing in the ring for both the adulation of the crowd and to improve your standing in the promotion. This game is about wrestling as a performance with pre-determined endings, telling stories of larger-than-life primordial conflict to the viewing audience. Your character is a professional who has a wrestling personae they play up for the crowd; in the ring, you have partners and rivals among the other wrestlers, but when the cameras are off, you may have very different conflicts and relationships with your coworkers.”

The Complete Illustrated Book of Evocation by Phil Stone LLC

• END DATE: Mon, April 13 2020 10:39 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $25 + $5 US S/H for the print book

“The Complete Illustrated Book of Evocation

. An illustrated spellbook for Evocation spells compatible with Dungeons and Dragons 5e. Contains all 107 spells for the school of Evocation. Over 100 pages in length, beautifully Illustrated. Options to get caught up and get ALL 4 spellbooks printed to date. (Necromancy, Divination, Conjuration, and Evocation)”

Dice Roll Dungeons 2 – Instant Dungeons For DND, Pathfinder by Aether Games

• END DATE: Fri, April 10 2020 3:44 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): System neutral
• PROJECT TYPE: RPG Accessory
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: CA$10 for the PDF

“20 more instant dungeons for Dungeons & Dragons, Pathfinder, 13th Age, and any other fantasy-based tabletop RPGs. Dice Roll Dungeons 2 is a collection of 20 more encounter scenarios, designed to work with D&D, Pathfinder, or any other fantasy-based RPG! Dice Roll Dungeons turns the act of detailing your encounters into a game of dice; it provides a fun and easy framework for your encounters, so you can generate ideas instantly and pick and choose from all of your favourite results! You start by gathering your favourite set of dice and rolling your trusty d20! The result of your twenty-sided dice roll will give you your DUNGEON SETTING, corresponding to what you rolled.From there, you flip to the chapter of the book that coincides with your result, and you will be given an overview of the location, lore about the dungeon itself, and other interesting sidenotes about potential hazards and inhabitants. After that, you can further customize the dungeon by rolling other dice on ADVENTURE HOOKS, the BOSS FIGHT of the dungeon, a variety of ENEMIES and DANGERS, and, of course, totally customized TREASURE!”

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5E D&D / Pathfinder Adventure - Witch Queen of Cair Urnach by Zan’s Adventures

• END DATE: Sun, April 12 2020 5:13 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition and Pathfinder
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $8 for the PDF of the book for both systems plus JPEG maps
• NOTE: Try these free on DriveThruRPG before you buy: The Wild Wolves of East Wood - 5E compatible (here) and Pathfinder compatible (here) and the Roll 20 (VTT) Map Pack (here)

“The burial mounds of Cair Urnahc hide many ancient secrets. A ghostly adventure module rpg for 5E DnD and Pathfinder. The Witch Queen of Cair Urnahc is designed to be a Pick Up and Play Adventure. The Witch Queen of Cair Urnahc is designed to be played with only a few minutes of preparation. Key points, skill checks, items, and decisions; stand out in bold text so that you can quickly find what you need. Skill check successes and failures are clearly set in boxes to make it easy and fast to find the text/results you need. No more fishing through paragraphs of text to try and find key points. The Witch Queen of Cair Urnahc was designed and play tested for groups from level 3 to level 5.”

STARFARER ADVERSARIES: LEGACY BESTIARY by Rogue Genius Games

• END DATE: 04/07/2020 06:00 (GMT-4)
• SYSTEM(S): Starfinder
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $19.95 for the PDF and POD copies of the book
• NOTE: This campaign is available via GameOnTabletop. Unfortunately, Kicktraq does not track crowdfunding projects on GameOnTabletop as of this writing
• NOTE 2: Owen KC Stephens, owner of Rogue Genius Games, freelances for EN World
• NOTE 3: Try the Starfarer Adversaries: Legacy Bestiary FREE PREVIEW via DriveThruRPG

“Monsters! In! Space! 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 path of fantasy RPGs, 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 them to Starfinder rules, it updates their concepts to account for high-tech and galactic adventure. Mimics as vending machines! Uplifted owlbears! Frost giants wielding cryoweapons! The Legacy Bestiary is written and illustrated by fan favorite Jacob E. Blackmon. Jacob has done illustrations for Adventure-a-Week, Christina Stiles Presents, Purple Duck, Rite Publishing, Rogue Genius Games, and many more.”

RPG Quick Hits

Welcome to The Wizard's Tower by David Larson

• END DATE: Fri, April 10 2020 3:00 PM EDT.
• NOTE: Link to this project’s Kicktraq information (here)
• “This is an interactive, adventure-based, educational experience that I have designed to engage 1-4 children for 12 weeks.”

Random Encounters Adventure Maps by Alvin Bearden

• END DATE: Fri, April 10 2020 3:35 PM EDT.
• NOTE: Link to this project’s Kicktraq information (here)
• “Adventure map cards that help you build and exciting story between the adventures or for those adventures that just seem to pop up.”

The Keep at Blood Red Falls by Angry Dwarf Games

• END DATE: Wed, April 15 2020 9:08 AM EDT.
• NOTE: Link to this project’s Kicktraq information (here)
• “The Keep at Blood Red Falls a 1st edition module - By Angry Dwarf Games, Written by Victor Dorso.”

EverWyrd Fantasy Gaming by Geeks Collaborative Gaming (Division of IndiviRev, LLC)

• END DATE: Thu, April 16 2020 2:53 PM EDT.
• NOTE: Link to this project’s Kicktraq information (here)
• “A 1-6+ player, GM-less, solo/cooperative Dungeon Crawling role-playing game based in a world corrupted by dark magic and darker demons.”

RPG Accessories

Far East Explorers - Dice Soap & Token Snowglobe Dice by Rockabilly Soap

• END DATE: Mon, April 13 2020 10:01 PM EDT.
• “Mini dice in hand-sculpted loot soaps”

The Tome Tote System - 2nd Wave by Travis Britten

• END DATE: Tue, April 14 2020 3:00 PM EDT.
• “The Tome Tote System - a way to carry your RPG books and bring more to the table!”

Keyfish Crit - Goldfish Polyhedral Dice Sets by Green Leaf Geek

• END DATE: Tue, April 14 2020 11:59 PM EDT.
• “Gaming dice with a fishy twist!”

Egg Embry participates in the OneBookShelf Affiliate Program. This program provides advertising fees by linking to DriveThruRPG.

 

[Morrus]

The effects of the pandemic are definitely unknown at the moment. These projects all end soon, and some of them funded before the lockdowns and everything were put in place. The interesting thing will be to see how they perform at the tail end, and how new campaigns starting now fare (we'll know about those in 3-4 weeks, I guess). Our next KS won't be ready for a while yet, but I don't think I'd be brave enough to launch one right now.

 

[dave2008]

thanks for adding the charts!

 

[Shiv]

A Kickstarter employee posted to a KS Facebook group a couple weeks ago that they weren't seeing a significant drop in project pledges. Of course, that could change as the crisis wears on.

 

[EthanSental]

Witch Queen of Cair Urnach looks great, I’ll have to check that one out and see if more of the visuals match the quality in the article above.

 

[Egg Embry]

The effects of the pandemic are definitely unknown at the moment. These projects all end soon, and some of them funded before the lockdowns and everything were put in place. The interesting thing will be to see how they perform at the tail end, and how new campaigns starting now fare (we'll know about those in 3-4 weeks, I guess). Our next KS won't be ready for a while yet, but I don't think I'd be brave enough to launch one right now.

Those are all fair points. I plan to keep track KS results for a few articles to see how our current situation impacts their funding. I'm hoping they'll show some positive numbers.

 

[Longspeak]

Dang it! I can't afford this much awesome right now!

sigh Fine. I guess I don't need to eat every day.

 

[J.M]

Not Kickstarter, but our sales numbers on drivethrurpg (Gildor Games) suggest that the virus is having an impact. Downloads of our free products are up, while the paid products are down; both quite significantly. We've shifted our messaging towards the free stuff, it's what a lot of gamers want and need right now.

 

[Egg Embry]

Not Kickstarter, but our sales numbers on drivethrurpg (Gildor Games) suggest that the virus is having an impact. Downloads of our free products are up, while the paid products are down; both quite significantly. We've shifted our messaging towards the free stuff, it's what a lot of gamers want and need right now.

That is interesting. I'm sorry your sales have been impacted, but I'm glad that you're able to help out during this crisis.

 

[harlandski]

I would add Con of Champions to this list.