Welcome to Crowdfunding Carnival for November! There are a ton of campaigns out there this month; my initial pass easily got to 20 even after I realized that there were a lot and started filtering more aggressively. We’ve definitely got more designers putting in the juice, but there are some other interesting developments going on.

First, Gamefound has come roaring onto the scene again. While the provider got some recognition during the Kickstarter blockchain kerfluffle, their network was pretty weak until recently. First, over the summer Gamefound acquired Indiegogo (not the other way around). Second, Gamefound is currently in the midst of RPG Party, an event that started in mid-October to help promote and drive engagement with RPG campaigns specifically. Chaosium and Magpie got on board with RPG Party, so between their involvement and the recent access to the Indiegogo mailing list, Gamefound has jumped from also-ran to contender seemingly overnight.

But let’s move onto the games. This month features campaigns from all three major crowdfunding providers, meaning the space is starting to heat up a bit. Competition is a good thing, and supporting competitors to Kickstarter is a great idea when Kickstarter United is still on strike.

Major Campaigns

A couple of big campaigns this month, and then a few honorable mentions as well. The Bakers are finally bringing Apocalypse World: Burned Over to Kickstarter, now officially calling it the third edition of the original groundbreaking game. Unlike many Kickstarter games, this is one I’ve read and playtested extensively (the 16th session of my Burned Over game is scheduled for this coming Sunday). Fans of Apocalypse World or PbtA in general should definitely check this out.

The next major campaign gets its historical bona fides in a somewhat unconventional route, but it’s noteworthy nonetheless. Mongoose Publishing is campaigning Pioneer, a new game based on the Traveller mechanics. While also built on space sci-fi, Pioneer is a game celebrating the age of space exploration and optimistic sci-fi centered around the space race. It’s very different than Traveller, but is certainly a solid expansion to those rules and should fill an interesting niche in sci-fi games.

Next campaign is technically not a game, but too big not to get a nod. The author of Designers and Dragons, Shannon Appelcline, is releasing his next RPG history magnum opus and Evil Hat has once again signed on to publish. Designers and Dragons: Origins goes deep into the initial publications of Dungeons and Dragons, looking at the first three major editions of the game (OD&D, Basic D&D, AD&D 1e) and diving into every product released for each of them. This is granular on a whole new level, and covers history of the game at a depth not yet seen. Definitely worthwhile for a D&D fan, but these first three editions will prove educational for anyone interested in RPG history.

Finally, an event going on over at Backerkit. It’s Mothership Month once again, and there’s a whole stack of Mothership supplements. The event is being anchored by first-party supplement Prospero’s Dream, but all of the campaigns are worth a look if you’re looking for more Mothership material.

Indies of Note

First off, a short but sweet one. Long Tail Games is campaigning Tiny Tome 3, their next collection of single page RPGs. Fifty one-page games, fifty different creators. In my view Long Tail’s previous entries speak to their curation and quality, and this one is worth checking out too.

Run from the Dark is the next game from Will RD, and is using a setting based on Welsh folklore as well as a new, more traditional ruleset compared to earlier games by the designer. There is also a tie-in to Will’s earlier game Forbidden Psalm, a Mork Borg-compatible minis game. Run from the Dark includes a fully-realized campaign world, so if you’re looking for a new standalone horror game, this is one to consider.

Jason Price is the designer of Notorious, a solo journaling game about being a space bounty hunter. This month he’s taken the concept of Notorious and completely changed the game. Notorious: Tales of Hardscrabble Bounty Hunting is still a solo game, but now the form factor is a deck of over 450 cards which provide the basis for telling your own unique bounty hunting stories. While the game has 18 bounties included in this set, the number of cards used in each story is small enough that there’s a fair amount of replayability being promised. I was unsure whether this version of Notorious made the cut at first, but looking into the card mechanics and how extensively the game was redesigned, I’m pretty comfortable in saying that Jason has changed the game.

There’s no doubt that art sells a game, and I’ve had to be very skeptical of overly polished or slick crowdfunding campaigns due to the rapid dissemination of AI art. Once in a while, though, I come across a campaign that both looks gorgeous and is 100% hand-drawn (by one artist, to boot). Dirt City Blues is “a tabletop RPG about Badasses dragged back for one last job.” The concept is tight and specific, and the book and all supporting material looks utterly gorgeous. The game is based on the Monad Echo system, used before in games like Broken Tales and Dead Air: Seasons, which I am not familiar with but have gotten a fair degree of recognition. Between the fantastic art and the sort of very deliberate design choices typified by the emergent Italian game design community, Dirt City Blues is worth consideration.

Having a name that befits the game under it, Ambition is a Taoism and Tarot-inspired game built on three interlinking sets of mechanics, two (combat and social intrigue) described as ‘rules-heavy’ and one (storytelling, exploration) described as ‘rules-light’. All of this comes together across two books and 750 pages detailing these mechanics, dozens of character creation options, and how Tarot cards come into it all. If you’re looking for a unique fantasy game, or just want to understand how a crunchy game can be run with Tarot cards, Ambition is the right place to look.

Who has two thumbs and likes ergodic literature? This guy! So of course I had to cover You Will Die in this Place. On one hand, You Will Die in this Place is a “nihilistic dungeon crawler”, a game about decay and the inevitability of death. On the other hand, You Will Die in this Place is framed as the bits and pieces of an unfinished indie game, a strange story told from the perspective of the game’s creator. It can be read like a novel, it can be played like a game. It is definitely different, and I hope you want to find out more about it as much as I do.

The last campaign covered this month is a very specific game, but that helps set up a specific experience. Lies by Omission is specifically inspired by classic Italian Horror, or Giallo from the 60s and 70s. The game is driven by Tarot, but focuses much more on investigation and mystery. Cards represent key items and characters, and are used to trigger mechanics as more characters are met and more information comes to light. I’m curious to see how the mystery-building mechanics work, and if the game can help GMs build a satisfying mystery or conspiracy that both has enough twists, turns, and dead-ends to be intriguing but at the end of the day is still technically solvable. 

Five Year Retrospective

November of 2020 started the slow crawl to normalcy, with eight campaigns covered plus a ninth which got its own article earlier (Thirsty Sword Lesbians). Like many previous months it’s a pretty hard-hitting list; both Urban Shadows 2e and Wildsea were campaigned this month. I’ve now played Both of these, and while Urban Shadows 2e was very late it was also a return to form after two middling licensed games from the house of Magpie. The rest of the campaigns from this month, including some other solid concepts like The Dee Sanction and Weirdspace, funded and fulfilled successfully. Some, like Shiver and The Dee Sanction did see further follow-ons, though other than the two highlights we didn’t see any breakouts this month. Still, solid campaigns and a few big games are more than we had been getting from most of 2020, as much as the entire year had a very solid hit rate among its humbler number of campaigns.

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We’re entering the darker part of the year, but there are plenty of games out there to help light up your home tables and your creativity. Play some games, pledge some campaigns, and be sure to join us next month for another Crowdfunding Carnival!

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