Welcome to the Crowdfunding Carnival for July! Just like every year, July is a lull prior to GenCon really revving everything up. Most larger publishers will hold announcements until the con, making July a little bit sparse in comparison. That said, this month may not have any major publisher campaigns but it does have a number of interesting entries. Interested in archaeology, cosmic horror, or making deals with the devil? Come right this way, we may have something for you.

Major Campaigns

This month, there are no ‘major campaigns’ by our typical ‘major’ metric, which focuses on larger publishers like Free League, Modiphius, or Onyx Path. However, we do have a couple campaigns by established designers which have already gotten some attention. Going forward, it’s likely you’re going to see more of the new games by established names pulled up into this category, though I’m sure once we get past the GenCon season and that focused spurt of game announcements the big guys will be back too.

Cowboy Bebop RPG designers Mana Project Studio are back with a new original game called TAZ, or Temporary Autonomous Zone. This game uses the Resistance system designed by Rowan, Rook, and Decard for both Spire and Heart, and I believe this is the highest profile third party use of that system so far. What makes TAZ interesting is that, while it’s kind of a typical cyberpunk game with the typical political battle lines drawn, it’s much more about idealism and humanity in the face of overwhelming structural hopelessness. What this means, though, is that characters will spiral out of control and the eponymous Temporary Autonomous Zones will collapse. If Mana Project Studio pulls this off, actually makes a game that captures the powerful mess brought together by idealists striving for a cause, they’ll both actually make an anti-nihilist cyberpunk game and also pull off a real injection of political reality that most of their predecessors have fallen short of. I’m cautiously optimistic.

From Possum Creek Games comes Last Train to Bremen, the first print run of the already award-winning game by Caro Asercion. Last Train to Bremen follows four musicians who made a deal with the devil that went wrong. In the boxcar of a train they play Liar’s Dice, with the wagers being their very memories. The four players of the game are also playing Liar’s Dice, and as they make their way through the game they discover how the band got to this place, and what really ended up dooming them all. Like TAZ, Last Train to Bremen is about a rise and a fall, albeit in a decidedly different time and place.

Indies of Note

To start we have a couple of sequels to check out. Depths of Obscurum is a direct sequel to Crypts of Obscurum, a solo/GMless RPG making the dungeon crawl experience quite a bit darker. Depths of Obscurum fast forwards into the future where a new fortress has been built upon the old crypt, and there are more, yes, depths to explore and get lost in. Somewhat (kind of) similar is Twelve Years at Sea, a direct sequel to the solo/GMless game Twelve Years. Twelve Years at Sea takes the mythic fantasy conceit of Twelve Years and makes it distinctly, well, nautical. What I think is cool about both of these games is that they’re attacking the challenge of expanding on a solo experience. There can’t really be a ‘generic’ solo game; you’re engaging with what is in effect a module, and giving the tools to a player violates the Czege Principle. So, instead, you see creations like both Depths of Obscurum and Twelve Years at Sea, where the designers aim to expand their original creations and split the difference between attracting a new audience and delighting their old fans. Check these out if you know the originals, and if you don’t maybe check those out as well.

Coming from Italy we have Allegore, a hack of Trophy Dark which shifts the game towards more personal horror and, at least a little, the works of Dante Alighieri. The seven incursions of Allegore are based on the seven deadly sins, and instead of sticking with Trophy’s treasure hunting conceit, characters are venturing to their downfall in worlds where the horror is more personal. I think all of the ideas here sound fantastic, although this does imply the game is going to be rooted in symbolism and perhaps a bit unmoored from reality compared to Trophy Dark. That may be better for horror, though, especially if the idea is to put players in the thick of these scenarios and see what they do. Allegory will see its game materials released in both English and Italian.

Next campaign is an intriguing idea from a first-time crowdfunder. Stars are Right is a tarot-driven cosmic horror game, and it has a few neat ideas that make it unique. First, the game gives each player different ways to interpret their card draws based on their astrological star chart, including Sun, Moon, and Rising signs. Second, the GM controls parts of the deck, specifically adding Major Arcana as the game goes on. While the campaign is scant on setting or plot details, I think the mechanical details around using tarot as a way to represent unveiling forbidden knowledge and mysteries one was not meant to know make the game sound like it could play quite well. Going to be watching this one.

You’ve likely seen in the past that I love truly unique game ideas, and this next one is probably the most unique of this month’s crop. Pharaohs and Phantasms is ‘An Archaeologist’s RPG’. Instead of playing characters in some ancient civilization, you create the stories of that civilization from the eyes of an archaeologist studying them and digging up their ruins. The game is driven through Remant and Connection cards, which allow players to shape a story and connect the events of the past to their characters. All of these are tied together by the setting playbooks, of which there are three in the initial game. Pharaohs and Phantasms sounds like a neat way to approach historical fantasy as a genre, and the design and playtesting by professional archaeologists makes it even better.

The next campaign, Islands of Ruins and Relics, is another solo RPG with a bit of a twist. The game involves exploring the eponymous islands, which are each represented by hex maps. While this wouldn’t be the first hexcrawl solo game, the rules explained in the campaign try to split the difference between straight-up OSR solo mode and a journaling game. Like all of these games, execution is everything, but I think Islands of Ruins and Relics could be a great example of exploration for many different playstyles.

Finally we have a straight-up PbtA game, a campaign type which used to be everywhere but hs since fallen out of fashion a bit. No matter. Traumatic is a PbtA game specifically about running horror, and seems to have the right idea about bringing horror to the table. The game mentions safety and consent tools early on, but specifically for getting to the heart of what your group is willing to play with and be scared by, which is key for horror to work. The campaign also notes guidance for eight different sub-genres of horror. I’m in complete agreement that horror is not one big nebulous thing, but I also note that PbtA shines when the game is specific, so I’m curious to see how the playbooks, moves, and other key mechanics come together in a way that supports this breadth of genre coverage.

Five Year Retrospective

July 2020 was, as I said in that month’s roundup, still weird. That said, weird meant good at least as far as some of the games being campaigned were concerned, although there were only five that month. I actually backed The Hike That Binds Us and while a hiking RPG is fairly niche, this one came together well and I got all the rewards pretty much on time. Overall the track record this month was pretty good; Fairies of the Mistglade did get cancelled but Runt, Storybox, and NerdBirds all made their way to backers.

Looking back at July, it’s important to remember not just that it was at the height of COVID (like the last four articles were), but also that at that point nearly five months in, there was serious fatigue across the country, equal parts social, psychological, and economic. The first vaccine wouldn’t be deployed in the US until December, but that 5-6 month point was when some people were starting to give up on the whole staying home thing, usually to either their detriment or someone else’s. When I read these articles again, I can see my own frustration mounting, and that was for multiple reasons. I was stuck at home like everyone else, still adjusting to working from home which before March of 2020 I hadn’t really done, and also watching all the news about the pandemic while knowing I had aging parents and worrying about the risk they were exposed to. At the time, gaming was an escape for me, one of my most significant; I started a second gaming group and between the two groups was most of my social contact that wasn’t work. It doesn’t surprise me that the frustration and powerlessness of the time was bleeding through into my writing. As we keep going forward, likely through at least the next four to five retrospectives, there’s probably going to be more of this.

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There’s a number of interesting games here in July; even though GenCon has all the attention of the big players, it doesn’t mean we have to turn our eyes towards Indianapolis this early. Any other interesting games you’ve heard about? Any announcements you’re waiting for eagerly? Feel free to let us know in the comments. Keep cool, play some games, and join us next month for another Crowdfunding Carnival!

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