This week’s crowdfunding sampler looks at campaigns that close between New Year’s Day and January 7. Among the offerings is the most profitable crowdfunding of the holiday season: Draw Steel: Crack the Sun from MCDM Productions. Matt Colville proves that there’s gold (pieces) in them thar hills! While the holidays tend to feature fewer crowdfunding campaigns, and fewer still that are big dollar projects, Draw Steel: Crack the Sun is closing out the year with a million dollar crowdfunding campaign on Backerkit.
The next four highest-grossing projects crowdfunding right now combined will achieve half of Draw Steel’s total. That’s not a shot at those campaigns, it’s a comparison to highlight the heights of Matt’s accomplishment. Twilight Sword from Two Little Mice and Free League, Life After Everything: Astro Oceans 
Tarot Tabletop RPG from Gifted Ocean, Apocalypse World: Burned Over from lumpley games, and Infernals: Crowned by Hellfire for the Exalted 3E RPG from Onyx Path Publishing all have fans and all deserve their praise, but they don’t reach the same community as Matt Colville’s effort.
As an aside, there’s another campaign that feels like it should be in this discussion, but hasn’t reached the funding heights I was expecting: Dynamite Entertainment’s Thundercats: The Roleplaying Game. The T-Cats property has a lot of recognition, so I’d expect a larger initial audience. That said, this campaign has done middling but not caught fire in the same way that other adaptations of beloved properties have. But, I’ll dig deeper into that in a week or two. In the meantime, let’s talk about MCDM Productions’ achievement as well as some other cool looking TTRPG crowdfundings.
Draw Steel: Crack the Sun from MCDM Productions
- END DATE: Jan 5, 2026 at 2:59am EST.
- CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
- SYSTEM(S): Draw Steel
- PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebooks
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $199 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of 7 books
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? The Backerkit campaign page opens with a question: Does Matt Colville’s gaming system have a future? Not just a future for MCDM Productions, but also a future for gamers playing the game. Will there be more fans and gaming content? This campaign answers this in two ways. In terms of fans, around 6,000 backed this campaign as of this writing, which is a handsome number. In terms of content, they’re offering three sourcebooks – Draw Steel: Encounters, Draw Steel: The Beastheart, and Draw Steel: Between Sun & Shadow – as well as four adventures – Draw Steel: Crack the Sun, Draw Steel: The Condemned, Draw Steel: The Red Road, and Draw Steel: Dark Heart of the Wood. That’s to say that this is a lot of future. Commonly compared to D&D 4e, Draw Steel is built for tactical fantasy crawls. The sourcebooks give new encounter rules, anciestries, and a ranger/beastmaster type of class. The adventures range from low- to mid-level quests and a full campaign that starts with saving villagers before you cross worlds exploring this 80 victory tale. If you’re a fan of Draw Steel, head over to their Backerkit campaign page to become part of their latest million dollar crowdfunding campaign.
A Refugee’s Guide to Nomas – Powered by Draw Steel from Sam McGurran
- END DATE: Jan 1, 2026 at 3:01am EST.
- CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
- SYSTEM(S): Powered by Draw Steel
- PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £25 for the PDF version of the book and a POD discount coupon
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Speaking of Draw Steel, here’s a third-party setting for the game involving a city of psionists where the citizens’ political thoughts have power. In the streets, there’s violence and adventure, and you’re pulled into both. This book details the setting and offers the kind of quests you’ll need to think your way through… because of the psionics. I mean, an ax to the head still solves problems in this setting, but this is a thinking person’s battle. Combining psionics and politics is a potent proposition. If you’re a fan of Draw Steel third-party adventures and settings pushed to the limits, this Backerkit page has previews to see if this town is what you think it is.
Somnus Domina 2025 : Three 5th Edition Splash Books from Nat19
- END DATE: Jan 1, 2026 at 3:00am EST.
- CROWDFUNDING ON: Backerkit
- SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebooks
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: C$140 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of 3 books
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This Backerkit campaign offers a lot of print 5e content, 3 books worth: Lana’s Fateful Vault (coming in at 57 pages), Dead Saint Record (which is 84 pages), and Three Gentle Sins (98 pages). These books are splash books from Nat19, and already available digitally via DriveThruRPG. This campaign will fund getting them into print and covering the creation of the next splash book. These three books offer new player and GM gaming options for 5e. If you’re interested in physical copies, check out this Backerkit campaign.
Collision Course | DarkSpace RPG & Death in Space RPG from Midgar Press LLC
- END DATE: Wed, December 31 2025 11:59 PM EST.
- CROWDFUNDING ON: Kickstarter
- SYSTEM(S): DarkSpace RPG & Death in Space RPG
- PROJECT TYPE: Adventure
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $12 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the book
- AI STATEMENT: “This project is crafted entirely by human hands, no AI or machine-generated content will be in the product.”
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Need a grimdark sci-fi space exploration adventure? Board a colony ghost ship that’s rocketing towards an asteroid colony, stop it, or lose everything. In a sci-fi future where humanity lives along the desperate fringes of space, you have to rescue a colony. There’s rewards for doing this, but the danger is real. Designed for DarkSpace RPG and Death in Space RPG, this 30- to 40-page adventure gives you the location, dangers, and twists to excite those looking for dark sci-fi.
KING MORG from Gavriel Quiroga
- END DATE: Wed, January 7 2026 7:04 AM EST.
- CROWDFUNDING ON: Kickstarter
- SYSTEM(S): Mörk Borg
- PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $23 + S/H for the PDF and print versions of the book
- AI STATEMENT: “Forged over half a year of toil and imagination, this story is crafted entirely by human hands and minds.”
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This isn’t your standard Mörk Borg sourcebook, just as the original game pushed the boundaries of layouts and campaign play, this third-party book offers new ideas for what a sourcebook might me. Andi Lennon, Miguel Molins, and Gavriel Quiroga combine a book of backstory to be read aloud between adventures along with a setting, The Limping Stag, with NPCs, atmospheric drink and food, and adventure hooks. KING MORG – A Tale of Love, Conquest & Madness is a 35-page book of possibilities and vintage Latin America comic book artwork built into an artifact for your Mörk Borg campaign.
Dogs of War Bestiary for Shadowdark RPG from Dead Hawk Publishing
- END DATE: Fri, January 2 2026 9:28 AM EST.
- CROWDFUNDING ON: Kickstarter
- SYSTEM(S): Shadowdark RPG
- PROJECT TYPE: Sourcebook
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: $15 for the PDF and VTT versions of the material
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? This third-party Shadowdark RPG sourcebook offers 200 monsters. Better than that, these are themed around an idea: war, which means fighters, battle casters, and worse. You’ll get a variety of fantasy monsters ready to march into battle. This is a digital-only offer so you’ll get the book and VTT tokens. If you’re a fan of Shadowdark RPG and bestiaries, then this Kickstarter may speak to you.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete: 500+ Magic Items for D&D 5E from EN Publishing
- END DATE: Thu, January 15 2026 10:59 AM EST.
- CROWDFUNDING ON: Kickstarter
- SYSTEM(S): Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition
- PROJECT TYPE: SourcebookPDF version of the book
- MOST POPULAR PLEDGE: £20 for the
- DISCLAIMER: EN World is a subsidiary of EN Publishing
- WHY SPOTLIGHT THIS CAMPAIGN? Do you need over 500 magical trinkets for your 5e campaign? If you’re reading this on EN World, then I’d hazard the answer is yes. I’ll cover this in a bit more detail in the upcoming weeks, but for now heard over to Kickstarter if you want to learn more about the composition of these magic items.
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