RPG Crowdfunding News – Pirates, Kobold Press, The Expanse, and more

PIRATE BORG: Down Among the Dead from Limithron and Free League Publishing

• END DATE: Fri, October 18 2024 7:00 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Mörk Borg (PIRATE BORG variant)
• PROJECT TYPE: Adventures
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $90 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of both books and the starter set as well as a patch and an additional PDF
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This Kickstarter offers a major expansion to Mörk Borg, the pirate version from Limithron. PIRATE BORG is a lethal, d20-based OSR set in The Dark Caribbean, a fantastical vision of The Golden Age of Pirates. This campaign offers a PIRATE BORG Starter Set, a player’s guide, a three-adventure anthology, a book filled with community content, tokens, dice, and a GM screen. Set in a dark sea of monsters, ghosts, and terrors, expect more horror movie content than historical fact. At Gen Con 2023, I played PIRATE BORG. Like all Mörk Borg games, the rules are lite, the chances of character death are high, and rolling a character up that starts with 1 hit point is a real possibility. At the con game, my dice provided me with that single Hit Point. I’ve done that low-HP character before and, as part of learning the system, I didn’t want to be hamstrung, so I decided to gut the PC during the game and roll a new one. This was instructive as every player worked to preserve my backstabbing pirate using their bennies to keep him going. When I say “lethal,” the game is, but there are options to stave off bad dice rolls. This Kickstarter has a starter set that gives you the rules, maps, tokens, cards, and a box to house it all plus any PIRATE BORG zines from your collection. If the idea of playing magical pirates intrigues you, there’s a link to the 31-page preview on the campaign page.

SINK! “created as a partnership of Crimson Herald, Samurai Rusk, and Hit Point Press”

• END DATE: Thu, October 17 2024 6:00 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $59 + S/H for the PDF, VTT, and print versions of the book and resources
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Under the sea with 5e. This is the second water-themed option ending between October 16 to 18. This supplement has what you’d expect: 5e rules for pirates, ships, and more. What you might not expect are the 50 magic tattoos, body art that gives new powers to the players. Yep, your character’s face tattoo with their ex’s name can’t be removed without lowering their AC. All lame jokes aside, the tattoo designs are created by Sam Rusk and they’re vibrant pieces of artwork. With over 200 pages, you’ll find new subclasses like the Mist Breaker Ranger and Spellskin Wizard as well as new species like Sea Gnomes and the Inkkborn. If you want pirates and tattoos for your 5e game, check out the campaign page for a free preview PDF.

GOLD TEETH: The Tabletop RPG of Piracy & Occult Horror from Big Robot

• END DATE: Wed, October 16 2024 9:38 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Forged in the Dark
• PROJECT TYPE: Core rulebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £48 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the book plus a map and zine
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Up next? A third piracy option for your gaming table. It’s 1781, this game of occult horror and piracy distinguishes itself from the others on this list by using Forged in the Dark rules. At 350 pages, this game gives you reason to hate the great powers even as you navigate the seas pitting you against the navies of the colonial powers, armed only with cannon, cutlass, and cantrips. I don’t know why pirate-based games are such a large grouping this week (beyond kicking off their campaigns around International Talk Like a Pirate Day), but each one of these is worth picking up some dice for.

The Expanse Roleplaying Game: Transport Union Edition from Green Ronin Publishing

• END DATE: Oct 16, 2024 at 9:00pm EDT.
• CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
• SYSTEM(S): AGE System (The Expanse variant)
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $150 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the rulebook, companion, and two other books
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? THE EXPANSE SPOILER WARNING Unlike most of my reviews, this one has minor spoilers for The Expanse book series and TV series. This sourcebook fills in the time jump that occurs between the novels Babylon’s Ashes and Persepolis Rising. Game-wise, that time period is fertile ground to explore because it puts the adventures between the end of the TV series and the “next chapter” seen only in the novels. In other words, if you’re a fan of the TV series or the books, this time frame gives you space (ha!) to tell original stories within the series’ mythology without bumping into the differences between the TV series and novels. This Backerkit campaign provides a revised core rulebook, The Expanse RPG: The Transport Union Edition, three supplements, miniatures, dice, and more. If you’re a fan of The Expanse and want the latest rules as well as answers about what happened during the three decade gap in the story, this Backerkit provides details and a PDF quickstart to sample.

Enter The Labyrinth: 5E TOV Expansion and Adventure Path from Kobold Press

• END DATE: Tue, October 22 2024 7:00 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition and Tales of the Valiant
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $63 for the PDFs of the worldbook, adventure, and maps
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Kobold Press is offering another book to make your 5e game amazing, a new setting featuring connected campaign setting rules. The Labyrinth of the book’s title allows the GM and players to connect different worlds, acting as a gateway between, say, Forgotten Realms and any other setting. There have been campaign settings that connect different worlds and planes together like a Frankenstein’s Monster of connected universes, but this book reimagines the concept. With a Labyrinth between the different worlds, the central setting isn’t a waypoint between the worlds, it’s an active component. The Labyrinth’s design gives the GM greater control in case they don’t want the players going back to Dark Sun or another plane. It’s a Labyrinth, so who is to say they’ll ever arrive there again? The campaign page suggests options that make a limited pathway between settings more tempting than the more common city of gateways trope. But this isn’t just a campaign setting, this book gives new gaming options to your 5e and Tales of the Valiant adventures. In addition, there’s a Labyrinth Adventures book that offers an adventure path taking your characters to many worlds. If you’re interested in this setting and options, there’s free previews available via the Kickstarter page.

Mists of Akuma: 5E+ Eastern Fantasy Noir Steampunk Bonanza from Mike Myler

• END DATE: Fri, October 18 2024 11:59 PM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition (2014 and 2024)
• PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebooks
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $85 for the PDFs of all five books
• ADDITIONAL REPORTING: I interviewed Mike Myler about this project here
• DISCLAIMER: Mike Myler writes for EN Publishing and EN World
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Because Mike goes hard at gaming, he’s doing a campaign bringing 5 – FIVE! – books for 5.2014e and 5.2024e plus free preview books. Mists of Akuma is an “eastern fantasy noir steampunk campaign setting” with resources like monsters, NPCs, maps, items, spells, an introductory adventure, and more. Mists of Akuma: Beyond the Great Divide is an adventure path covering 3rd to 16th levels leading with a village bloodsport festival and an unhinged ruler. Soburin Vignettes Volumes #1 and #2 provides mini-encounters, monsters, and everything you need to throw a one-off bit of action into your adventure. 2099 Wasteland Campaign Setting Generator is another resource, this one with monsters, cults, classes, and more to get your campaign a bit of spice. Some of these books existed in one form or another for years, but this campaign updates them with revised and original content to make them more engaging for first-time players. If you’re interested, check out the campaign page for free links to several samples.

Darkworld: Legends of Lornea from Patrick E. Pullen

• END DATE: Thu, October 17 2024 11:04 AM EDT.
• SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
• PROJECT TYPE: Prose and an adventure
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $5 gets you the PDF of the adventure, $10 gets you the PDF of the book
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This fantasy anthology novel introduces Patrick E. Pullen’s dark fantasy setting. Containing stories by Jean Rabe (Dragonlance: Dragons of a New Age), Richard Lee Byers (Forgotten Realms: War of the Spider Queen Book 1: Dissolution), Donald J. Bingle (work on the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting (2nd Edition), The Love-Haight Case Files), Richard Knaak (Dragonlance: The Legend of Huma), and Patrick E. Pullen, whose work can be found on the DMs Guild. At 250 pages with a map and artwork, this book serves as a primer for Patrick’s world where there is one continent, its western half is in daylight and its eastern in darkness after a war of the gods stopped the planet’s rotation. To get a feel for the types of adventures you’ll find in this world there’s Terror at Murkwell. Designed for levels 1 to 4, this murder mystery and city exploration adventure lets players learn more about the setting and paves the way for future RPG supplements. If you’re interested in the prose anthology and the accompanying adventure, check out the campaign page for more details.

Split the Hoard: A competitive card game for 2-5 players from EN Publishing

• END DATE: Thu, October 24 2024 5:00 PM EDT.
• PROJECT TYPE: Competitive card game
• MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £15 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the game
• DISCLAIMER: EN World is a subsidiary of EN Publishing
• WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? It’s the end of your dungeon crawl and you’re staring at the pile of loot. It’s too big to take it all. So, why not see who can get the best items? This competitive card game pits players against each other to get the best items from the spoils.

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