Welcome to Crowdfunding Carnival for July! July is the summer doldrums in the RPG world, no doubt about that. With GenCon in early August, a large portion of the design world shifts the timelines of their games so that they have either announcements for GenCon, or something to sell at GenCon. As a result, product announcements, be those releases or crowdfunding, rarely if ever happen in July; the potential benefits of waiting just a few weeks are too much. As a result, this article will not hit the target of ten campaigns; the designers aiming to put forth original RPGs are exactly the ones who would benefit the most by using GenCon as a platform.

That said, there was a fairly large campaign that wrapped up earlier this week which is worth talking about at least because of what it represents. DC20 came out of nowhere to raise over two million dollars for a game which, like your typical fantasy heartbreaker, has all of its promise restricted to what it does differently or better than D&D. The only difference between this campaign and literally dozens of D&D-alikes which went nowhere (as well as a few which did go somewhere, like the MCDM RPG) is that it was heavily marketed on YouTube.

Now, being a fantasy heartbreaker doesn’t necessarily make a game bad, and I have no opinion on the quality of most of these games (unless I reviewed them, like Daggerheart). That said, there’s nothing interesting or compelling about making another D&D. One potentially interesting thing about all of these D&D clones is that it does presage a willingness to step away from the Wizards of the Coast monopoly, and that can only be a good thing. Still, I’m waiting for the day that the majority of the hobby realizes that roleplaying games have nothing to do with Tolkien xerography. I may be waiting for a long time.

Major Campaigns

While much hay was made over DC20 and its claim to remake d20 gaming, the OG of attempting to remake d20 gaming and maybe getting recognition for it is out on Kickstarter now. Troll Lord Games is campaigning Castles and Crusades Reforged, the new and non-OGL version of one of the better known (or perhaps just less bad) attempts at rewriting D&D by using, well, the rules of D&D. While I am kidding around a bit, Castles and Crusades was one of the first harbingers of the OSR, and is still probably the second best way to enjoy old-school gaming and 3e-era D&D together after Worlds Without Number. And, unlike DC20, you don’t need to watch the ads on a bunch of Youtube channels to understand its appeal.

Indies of Note

Even the indies are getting in on ‘making another D&D’, though Grimwild is claiming to fill the gap in the hobby previously occupied by Dungeon World. Of course, the description of the game indicates that this is done by shifting back towards firmer monster-based encounters and firmer class-and-level progression. The designers do note an intent to market towards 5e, OSR, and “narrative game players”, which makes sense for a game that seems to be an unholy child of Trophy and D&D. There are some neat features, like the exploration deck, and the two-die mechanic could be really interesting (d8s are added instead of difficulty modifiers). That said, as much as the game is inspired by Dungeon World, it’s unlikely it’s going to blow the door open on a new indie ruleset in the same way. Best part for sure, though, is that you can download a free quickstart and decide for yourself if Grimwild is the type of D&D you want to play.

So this paragraph was describing a game with a particularly long campaign, one that looked interesting. It also was a campaign that was at least partially built on AI art. The campaign is removed and not being promoted, but I’m leaving this paragraph here to concede that it can be hard to confirm who is and isn’t using AI art. We caught it this time, but I’m sure I will make a mistake in the future. If a crowdfunding campaign I list in a future article is using AI art, let me know and I’ll remove it. My policy on AI art is very simple: Crowdfunding is to support creatives in bringing their work to a broader audience. AI art undermines the work of creatives. Therefore, if you use AI art in your final product (placeholders and prototyping are a grey area which we look at case by case), I will not ever promote it.

Next up we have Helluva Town, some cartoon nightmare fuel coming from a team of Italian designers and American writers and artists. Helluva Town is a cartoon world, but the style mixes rubber hose animation as resurrected by Cuphead (Shawn Dickinson, the illustrator, worked on Cuphead comics) with later influences like Looney Tunes and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. The result is a light card-driven game which could be as fun to play as it is to look at. Fans of Roger Rabbit, Cuphead, and underground ‘comix’ will get a kick out of this.

Mork Borg hacks have had incredible staying power, but I’m glad to see that the best designers in the space are pushing the concept further. Pawel Kicman, designer of Corp Borg (which I backed and loved), is returning to the Borg-alike space with Hellpower, a take on the supers genre where hell itself is what granted people superpowers. The result is a world inspired by The Boys, albeit with less political allegory. You play normal people in a world of apocalyptic superpowers, where the risk to life and limb is offset by black humor. Hellpower carries on the original Borg tradition of apocalyptic inevitability, while dipping into superpower inversion just when it’s most popular.

Speaking of games inspired by comics. Nightbound is a new PbtA project, something that I’m interested to see now that the initial PbtA wave has long since crested. Citing Hellblazer as a primary inspiration, Nightbound places players in the role of one of the few mortals standing up against the Darkness, all manner of creatures who coexist with humanity and use them for their own purposes. Combining solid art with an ‘ain’t broke don’t fix it’ approach to PbtA rules, Nightbound is an intriguing project for fans of PbtA and urban fantasy, especially if you’re feeling more Hunter: the Reckoning than Vampire: the Masquerade.

Five Year Retrospective

July of 2019 was a mostly uneventful month of crowdfunding campaigns. Scorched Earth: New Beginnings sadly failed to fund, but every other campaign has since fulfilled, so no ghostings here. Hit the Streets: Defend the Block and Sleepaway were the two breakout campaigns here, with HtS:DtB getting an ENnie nod and Sleepaway becoming something of a breakout game for designer Jay Dragon. Another campaign of note that did sell fairly well is Fateforge, but as it ended up a 5e-based game, that’s neither surprising nor particularly noteworthy. Speaking of not particularly noteworthy, most other campaigns from this month have faded from view, like campaigns often do; I did note with some sadness though that several of these campaigns are already completely out of print, with websites and DriveThruRPG links simply failing to exist. As these retrospectives move closer to the 2020s and the DriveThruRPG title volume increases, it’s likely we’re going to see more and more of these games that don’t just thud, but completely disappear.

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All aboard the promo train to GenCon town! It was a bit of a sparse month, but still some interesting campaigns to check out in the lead up to con season. Any campaigns you think I missed? Thoughts about the campaigns above! Feel free to drop a note in the comments. Until next time, make some pledges, play some games, and I’ll see you next month for another Crowdfunding Carnival!

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