Welcome to the Crowdfunding Carnival for June! While the majors are away, the indies will play, and now is a solid rush of projects from some smaller names even as the big guys get ready for the next big con. There were a pretty big number of campaigns to pare down from, but I think the ones I chose are pretty solid. And, despite a lack of new games from those big names, there is one new license to check out and a couple follow-on campaigns. Let’s begin.

Major Campaigns

This month was fairly sparing in terms of major campaigns, and it makes sense; all the big guys are gearing up for GenCon and for the most part won’t try to roll out a new game unless they can either release it or announce it at the con for some event-related uplift. There are however a few secondary campaigns of note. Evil Hat is campaigning Blades in the Dark: Deep Cuts. Although the expansion was released last November, this campaign is to get it into print and sell all of those fun extras, like notebooks, card decks, and poster-sized maps.

Also in the chamber is a new campaign for Invisible Sun, Monte Cook’s ambitious RPG that mostly seems to be remembered for how expensive it is. This new version, Indigo, is a slightly different imagining than the infamous ‘black cube’ and it comes at a slightly smaller price: $179. Hey, after you account for inflation this may actually save a little money, unless of course you back at the $287 ‘Breadth of Actuality’ level. Sadly, there’s no pledge level that includes GM coaching from Monte Cook himself, a pledge level that did exist and that one of my friends did pay for back in the day.

Okay, there’s one kind of interesting, kind of major campaign. While ‘Lans Macabre Publishing’ is hardly a major publisher, they’re working with none other than Modiphius to release a licensed Heroes of Might and Magic RPG. Now, I’m biased here because I absolutely grew up with Heroes of Might and Magic 3 as well as Might and Magic 7 and 8. I am shocked that this setting has never seen a TTRPG adaptation or, given its age, that it didn’t come from a TTRPG. Still, better late than never, and even though the designer may be on the smaller side, this is a big publisher and big license, and as such I have big expectations. It’s based on Heroes 3 specifically, which is even better.

Indies of Note

First off is a neat sequel to a well-known indie. Graham Walmsley is taking what he did in Cthulhu Dark and bringing it to the outer reaches of space in Cosmic Dark. With no character creation Cosmic Dark takes you right into the outer reaches of the galaxy and a strange place called the Glitch, where you’ve been sent by an evil corporation. In the Glitch you’ll discover the stuff of nightmares, as is appropriate for a game of truly cosmic horror. The mechanics are light but intended to be very flavorful, focusing a tight beam on how your character is changed by what’s inflicted on them. A cool nugget that I find particularly evocative? Each scenario starts with a ‘psych profile’ where the characters are asked charged questions to reveal darker parts of their personality.

The Millennium Projekt sounds like an early 2000s throwback, but perhaps not of the part you’re thinking of. The game focuses on superhero movies in a distinctly pre-Marvel, one may even say Nolan-esque world. Dark palettes, melodrama, and gruff voices from under the mask are all par for the course here, though the mechanics are (as RPGs are wont to do) somewhat more focused on all the powers. That said, the game starts each session with rolls to determine each character’s current crisis, which now sounds like we’re doing superhero movies right. This game has a lot of cool ideas, and I think it has the potential to add something unique to the superhero genre.

Next up and appropriate for Pride is Closet. Closet is a journaling game about coming out, using dice and cards to build out your story. What I like about this is that the perspective of the game is written to share what coming out stories look like, to take real-life experiences from gay men who have gone through the process of coming out to family and friends and put that into a safe context to explore. The stories don’t all have happy endings (you don’t need to have gone through it yourself to know that), but I really appreciate what Closet represents not only as a way to use games to explore the stories of others but also as a piece of outreach, a way to share a story that usually resonates much more within the queer community than it does outside of it. It’s also worth noting that the proceeds from this game will all go to It Gets Better España, the Spanish arm of the worldwide nonprofit.

Next one is short but sweet. One shots (or 1shots) is a game designed to be played at a bar. It’s even printed on a bar mat (maybe not literally, but the game does come in mat form). I’m very pro- bar games and mixed social games. I’m less certain how I feel about a game that, based on the tagline, seems to want to encourage you to drink. Oh well. I’ll chalk it up to our culture around alcohol and check out the game anyway.

There’s been a lot of hay made over minimalist systems over the years. I’ve contributed to it, gushing over games like Mork Borg. There is something to be said about having content to work off of, though, and this next campaign is for adding some more meat onto an otherwise minimalist system. Echoes of the Veil is a hack of CBR+PNK which takes the original pamphlet-sized game and builds it out with new mechanics, items, and characters, including but not limited to the game’s new magic system to make CBR+PNK more Shadowrun-like. We’ve done a lot of stripping down, but I’m also intrigued by some good building up.

Sin Eater is a solo game built on historical practice: Sin eating was the practice of taking on the sins of the dead through eating a ritual meal near their body. I didn’t really know that this was a real thing, so a game about it immediately intrigued me. Of course, the mere idea of such a practice brings up all sorts of bigger questions about the nature of sin and the role that Christianity played in medieval society. To further ground this game in historical context, the mechanics are built around the four humors. I do find it interesting how relatively late the practice of Sin Eating was popular (according to the campaign the 17th to 19th centuries in the British Isles) compared to both the art and the mechanics, but overall I think it still achieves its desired effect. As a bonus: Art by Johan Nohr, best known for Mork Borg.

Finally, we have Imminent Peril. Imminent Peril is almost board game-like in its execution, but sitting next to games like Fiasco more than anything traditional. Described as ‘competitive improv’, the game involves making a setting from random prompts, using cards to tell a story, and then finally describing how you would survive using one of the abilities you have (examples include ‘pick-a-vision’ and ‘way too many explosives’). The result sounds like a cross between Fiasco and Cards Against Humanity, and I think it could become the improv party game of choice among RPG nerds if it gets the promotion it deserves.

Five Year Retrospective

June of 2020 was still weird! That said, the crop of games we looked at was pretty solid. Gavriel Quiroga’s Neurocity, Alice is Missing, and Dancing With Bullets Under a Neon Sun, which I personally backed and got a slick physical copy of. Other than those two, both Red Bean: Dragon Slayer and The Epic of Dreams funded and fulfilled, though it looks like The Epic of Dreams squeaked in under the wire by shipping in late 2024. Still counts!

Also this month was my first foray into looking at Kickstarter competitors, this time with Game On: Tabletop. Game On: Tabletop is still here and bigger than ever, but in the anglophone arena of the Cannibal Halflings, it’s not so much a Kickstarter competitor. GO:T is eminently successful as a hub for French crowdfunding, both original games and translations. As the original investor in the site was Black Book Editions, a French game publisher, this makes sense. So, even though we don’t see a lot of campaigns for our audience on Game On: Tabletop, I’m happy they’re doing well and serving a part of the market that isn’t necessarily served by Kickstarter.

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It’s the middle of the year! The first half has been plenty eventful, but we’re not done. Hopefully the summer will slow down enough for everyone to take a breath, go outside, and maybe even play some games. Then, it’s time for Q3. Ready for Q3? Join us next month for Q3 and another Crowdfunding Carnival!

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