RPG Crowdfunding News – The Tomb of Gyzaengaxx, Gary Gygax's World Builders Archive, and more

This week’s TTRPG crowdfunding sampler covers projects ending between March 21 to 28 plus an April 10 outlier that's on-theme. The lead offering are a pair of Gygax-related projects, one an homage and the other a reprinting. Speaking of Gygax, Heidi Gygax Garland and her husband, Erik Garland, of GAXLAND announced a new gaming convention: EGG CON for E. Gary Gygax Con, though I love the name for obvious reasons. Their gathering runs from Friday, July 26th through Sunday, July 28th in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. This is not to be confused with the upcoming Gary Con and Founders & Legends Con run by Luke Gygax. But, it's nice to see more focus on the birthplace of D&D and its co-creator.

The Tomb of Gyzaengaxx: Adventure & Campaign Setting from Gooey Cube and Luke Gygax/Gaxxworx

• END DATE: Mon, March 25 2024 1:59 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition and Old-School Essentials
• PROJECT TYPE: Adventure
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $200 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of both books and the boxed set
• ADDITIONAL REPORTING: Morrus discussed the campaign when it first launch
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? A friend who has run many, many crowdfunding campaigns suggested nothing convinces fans to back a project like someone backing and recommending the project to their friends. I agree. But a close second is getting to meet with Luke Gygax and Alphinius Goo as they pitch their project: The Tomb of Gyzaengaxx. Their pitch sold me, so let's talk about this project. This is a boxed set adventure honoring Luke’s father, Gary Gygax, by creating a love letter to what Gary co-created in the 1970s, Dungeons & Dragons. Gooey Cube projects are all-in-one adventures, beautiful boxed sets that transport you into the game with books, tokens, and more. The Tomb of Gyzaengaxx has an extra ingredient over their normal projects: Having a Gygax onboard. Luke makes this a family affair by bringing the memory of his father as he adds his wife and kids' characters as NPCs. Explore the tomb of Garold Gyzaengaxx, Ghostly Archmage, and meet numerous legendary D&D creators appearing as NPCs; ranging from Larry Elmore to Peter Adkinson to Erol Otus to Helen Cook to David “Zeb” Cook and more, it's a great touch to meet the legends on your gaming table. This is a boxed set adventure for levels 6 to 8 with a detailed environment to traverse. The materials and adventure can be set in Gooey Cube's World of Zyathé, Gaxxworx's World of Okkorim, or your fantasy campaign. The tale combines serious adventure with a number of puns and Easter eggs – Village of Etholmm, Village of Blun – that offer well-timed pauses between the action and adventure. If you’ve never purchased a Gooey Cube product, you are in for a treat. Their boxed sets are heavy. Like, the kind of weight that you’ll tell a friend, “When I say heavy, I mean you gotta hold this thing to believe!” The boxed set contains three books with adventures, setting material, and rules plus portraits and pieces of art, poster maps, cards, and a durable box. I haven’t held this one, but the previews of the contents are, as always with Gooey, next level. If you’re on the fence, past performance makes me believe that Gooey is going to deliver the kind of content you’ll enjoy just looking through page after page, item after item; you’re getting a lot of return on your investment. Check out the campaign page to see if this is right for your gaming table.

Gary Gygax's World Builders Archive from Troll Lord Games

• END DATE: Wed, April 10 2024 10:00 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): System neutral
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $110 for the PDF of the 7 books
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Gary Gygax’s words return to print in this multi-volume series. Originally published between 2001 and 2008, this campaign offers roleplaying aids representing everything you’ll need for “creating Setting, Adventures, and World Building. Each of the volumes was written, co-written, or edited by Mr. Gygax.” This project continues the relationship between Troll Lord Games and the estate of Gary Gygax; in this case it brings so many more books to sift through. This campaign brings 7 print books – 10, if they reach all of their stretch goals – or 10 PDFs: The Canting Crew (144 pages), Essential Facts & Things (180 pages), Living Fantasy (156 pages), The Extraordinary Book Of Names (206 pages), Guide To Adventure Writing (116 pages), Nation Builder (144 pages), Cosmos Builder (128 pages), Weyland Smith Catalog (78 pages), Pantheons (144 pages), and Essential Places (144 pages). All of these are system neutral world building ideas from the source of TTRPG sources, Gary Gygax. This is the type of guidance that many OSR and D&D enthusiasts are looking for, and if you want to read the words from the original source, you can get them via this campaign.

Gods of the Forbidden North: Volume 2 from Pulp Hummock Press

• END DATE: Thu, March 28 2024 3:00 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Old-School Essentials: Advanced Fantasy
• PROJECT TYPE: Adventure
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $29 for the PDF of both volumes
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? After two projects and a convention, let’s look beyond Gygax at a project that uses Old-School Essentials for a hex-crawl and megadungeon by Robert Alderman and other great creators. (I understand that jumping from D&D to OSE is not a perilous distance.) This campaign offers the second of a three-volume mega-adventure. When combined with the prior and future volumes, the Gods of the Forbidden North will equal 1,300 to 1,500 pages (Volume 1 was 480 pages while Volume 2 is 352). This volume deals with the underworld lying beneath the arctic frontier of the first volume. If you’re interested, you can download a sample 2nd level dungeon site, Fort Ikenvar, on the campaign page. I like the fact that their free download is a useful standalone sample of their work.

Our Brilliant Ruin Roleplaying Game from Studio Hermitage

• END DATE: Thu, March 28 2024 11:00 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): An original system
• PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $50 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the book
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Elitist society and upstairs-downstairs drama brought low by existential horror like Downton Abbey meets Mythos. Monsters and courting, horror and station, all blended in an Edwardian era-like setting filled with terrors and manners. This is not set in our world, but in a fully realized universe where the end is coming but the forms must be observed until then. The campaign page gives a deep overview, especially about the setting, class, and more. If you’re a fan of horror and society, this is worth a look.

Warrenguard from Luck of the Harbor

• END DATE: Mar 25, 2024 at 1:00pm EDT.
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
• SYSTEM(S): “A unique system that blends aspects of Belonging Outside Belonging games such as Wanderhome with the Fate Accelerated system by Evil Hat.”
• PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $35 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the book
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? You are a dragonrider, a defender of humanity that soars between the floating islands in the sky while facing monsters and other trials. This is a game about dragons, their caregivers, and the bonds of found family from Natalie Pudim, author of Sapphic Space Pirates. Coming in at about 100 pages, this rulebook gives you 5 classes, 12 dragon species, rules to create a world, and more. If you’re interested in trying out a game of dragonriding, flight, and saving those around you, check out this Backerkit campaign.

Arcforge Universe: Sci-fi adventure for Pathfinder RPG from Legendary Games

• END DATE: Thu, March 21 2024 9:00 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Pathfinder First Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $49 for the PDF of both books
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Legendary Games dusts off Pathfinder First Edition to add two collections totaling over 600 pages: Arcforge Players' Compendium and Arcforge Universe Cyclopedia. This is all sci-fi, combining and updating products printed over the last 6 years. Fully revised and re-tested, you’ll get new classes, mech rules, psionic powers, cultures, monsters, and more. If you’re a PF1e and sci-fi fan, this is worth exploring.

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? Need new planes of existence? These books offer 30 for your A5E and 5e games. This campaign shares the 260-page Planestrider's Journal, the 50-page Captain Cobalt's Codicil, and an 18" x 12" poster map. The Planestrider’s Journal is an original book while the Captain Cobalt’s Codicil compiles all planar-related articles from Level Up’s official magazine. Do you need this for your campaign? Some gaming tables are eager to jump planes and this book simplifies the GM’s worldbuilding workload. You’re getting subclasses, planefaring ships, spells, monsters, a 7th-level adventure, and more. Check out the campaign page to read some excerpts to see if this is right for your gamers.

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[Bill Zebub]

Gyzaengaxx is definitely intriguing, but it seems like whenever I get something produced by true old school gamers, it comes in the old school format: many dense pages of long-form prose. When I was 15 I would stay up late reading that stuff, but now I just glaze over. I want essential details as bullet point summaries. I want to be able to run an adventure without reading the whole thing first. (Not that I won't read it first, I just want it to be presented in a way that it's not necessary.)

I recently received my Dark Tower kickstarter, and I'm glad I have it for nostalgia's sake, but I haven't actually read it and don't really plan to.

And don't get me started on Marmoreal Tomb, from the other Gygax.

I'll take a look at that KS, but one of my requirements going forward for Kickstaters will be that a couple of sample pages are offered, so I can see what the format/presentation are like.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Hi! How do I get my adventure zine listed here? I tried to use the contact form on another site Egg writes for and I sent EN a dm on Instagram. I’m not sure how to get in touch.

@Egg Embry reads most/all of the comments to these crowdfund threads, so I'm sure he'll see your post. Whether he reports on it or not is based on various criteria, most importantly - will it be of interest to ENWorld readers...

 

[Egg Embry]

@Egg Embry reads most/all of the comments to these crowdfund threads, so I'm sure he'll see your post. Whether he reports on it or not is based on various criteria, most importantly - will it be of interest to ENWorld readers...

@Mr.X , Eyes of Nine is right. I can't promise coverage since there are hundreds of campaigns and space is limited on this sampler, but I'm happy to take a look. If you go to the top of EN World where your screen name is, you should see an envelop; feel free to send me a message there with a link to your campaign.

 

[Zarithar]

And don't get me started on Marmoreal Tomb, from the other Gygax.

Right there with you... and I also stopped caring about it long before it actually finally released (thanks Troll Lords). When it did finally show up on my doorstep, I thumbed through it and then donated the whole thing to an RPG org that I am part of. Hopefully someone there will get some enjoyment out of it.

 

[timbannock]

Gyzaengaxx is definitely intriguing, but it seems like whenever I get something produced by true old school gamers, it comes in the old school format: many dense pages of long-form prose. When I was 15 I would stay up late reading that stuff, but now I just glaze over. I want essential details as bullet point summaries. I want to be able to run an adventure without reading the whole thing first. (Not that I won't read it first, I just want it to be presented in a way that it's not necessary.)

I recently received my Dark Tower kickstarter, and I'm glad I have it for nostalgia's sake, but I haven't actually read it and don't really plan to.

And don't get me started on Marmoreal Tomb, from the other Gygax.

I'll take a look at that KS, but one of my requirements going forward for Kickstaters will be that a couple of sample pages are offered, so I can see what the format/presentation are like.

I'm in a similar place. Especially after prepping some of the OAR adventures by Goodman and my I-don't-know-what-number-th time prepping a Curse of Strahd campaign, I'm absolutely burnt out on long prose in adventures.

And especially a big hear-hear on sample pages. Don't give me the introduction: give me some pages from the meat of the book so I know what I'm getting into! I can't believe how often this is still a missing element of crowdfunding campaigns and even fully released stuff up on the usual sales channels.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm in a similar place. Especially after prepping some of the OAR adventures by Goodman and my I-don't-know-what-number-th time prepping a Curse of Strahd campaign, I'm absolutely burnt out on long prose in adventures.

A good palate-cleanser is either one-page dungeons, which don't have room for that crap, especially if they have a lot of rooms.

The Arcane Library's 5E adventures are also fantastic and are so slim, they can be run without even reading them ahead of time. (They do run better if you have, like I think most adventures do.)