Welcome to the Crowdfunding Carnival for August! We’re still a little bit in the post-GenCon hangover, but there are definitely a lot of things to talk about and games to look into.

Before getting into the games, this seemed like the right place to reiterate the news that Gamefound has acquired Indiegogo, mixing Gamefound’s newer tech stack with Indiegogo’s massive subscriber base. Gamefound has been very successful in board games, though they haven’t broken into RPGs to the same degree. Still, these two companies joining forces means we will likely have a third viable crowdfunding platform after Kickstarter and Backerkit in terms of network effects and value for project developers. Will we see more RPG projects from Gamefound in this list? Possibly. The site still trails in terms of reach and backer-facing quality of life features, like requiring disclosures for projects that use AI art. Still, more competition is generally better in the space, and I look forward to seeing the newest iteration of Gamefound roll out.

And with that, on to the games! We’ve got horror, we’ve got dragons, and yes, we’ve got another attempt at writing a tabletop roguelike. Onward!

Major Campaigns

Only one original game from one of the majors this month, though there is an honorable mention in the form of a supplement campaign. Pinnacle Entertainment Group (of Savage Worlds fame) is campaigning Doom Guard, a new game of heroes versus cosmic horror set in the world of existing Savage Worlds setting Necessary Evil. The RPG component of Doom Guard will be a Savage Worlds setting, but the game is also being released as a cooperative board game, bringing Pinnacle’s IP into a new medium.

Rowan, Rook, and Decard scares up an honorable mention with their campaign for Ways and Means, a sourcebook for Heart: The City Beneath. The book seems to be a fairly broad expansion, including new classes and callings but also items, spells, and expanded rules for hirelings.

Indies of Note

First off this month we have Dragon Slayers, the newest project from LUMEN designer Spencer Campbell. Dragon Slayers is based on Campbell’s earlier game Slayers, but takes the D&D class focus and supercharges it, to the point that each class uses completely different rules. While I’m not always the target audience for Campbell’s very tactics-focused rulesets, extreme class differentiation is something I’m extremely here for.

Continuing on the theme of dragons, Drakonym is a “narrative-first” RPG where the focus is on player characters bonding with dragons and growing with them. Despite narrative being in the tagline, the game looks very trad given its ‘action point combat system’ and three core books. The concept does sound interesting, but points off for misuse of nomenclature.

Coming up with its first full-length edition is Vaults of Vaarn. Originally published as a zine, Vaults of Vaarn is going to be available in hardcover and at eight times the length, it’s a whole new experience. With a number of ‘Dying Earth’ influences and intriguing Moebius-inspired art, Vaults of Vaarn uses Knave to produce a setting-forward experience that could nestle in nicely alongside Ultraviolet Grasslands.

Speaking of continuations, Hatchlings is campaigning Underisles, the third installment in its sign language RPG trilogy alongside Inspirisles and Overisles. We actually covered Inspirisles five years ago this month, and I’m personally glad that Hatchlings has been able to continue bringing ASL and BSL to audiences with these games. The game continues the Arthurian setting from the earlier titles but, as the title may imply, sees characters exploring caves, submerged lakes, and other underground areas of the setting.

Crucible is a solo game, but also a world-building game, and that has me intrigued. The game (over)uses the term ‘roguelike’ to indicate that you’re expected to play through multiple times, but I do think that here the conceit is interesting, and not just for the sake of replayability. You play through an escape from the Crucible, and each time the map is a bit different. Each time, though, you find out more about your character and the world they’re escaping into, with said world developing over repeated play. I like the ambition here, and a game designed to be played multiple times is a great way to explore bigger potential in solo roleplaying.

What Lurks Between the Trees takes the conceit of Delta Green or External Containment Bureau and throws on a twist. You are part of the Department of Occult and Paracausal Containment, a small and secretive branch of…the, uh, National Park Service. The game takes naturalistic folk horror and combines it with bureaucratic horror for a unique twist on the genre. Control, but with bear canisters? Triangle Agency, but with backcountry camping? I’m in.

A notable honorable mention concludes our indie crop this month; Shadows Over Sol is campaigning a second edition. We were quite taken by the sci-fi horror game when it was first released, check out Seamus’s write-up on the game.

Five Year Retrospective

Another small crop in August of 2020, but with some good stuff in it. Both Wanderhome and Jiangshi went on to fair recognition, in no small part due to the track record and reputation of their designers. Inspirisles started a whole line of ASL/BSL-based games, with the third one being covered above. While Brass Rings and Preparing for Paris didn’t quite make as big a splash, both of them were delivered as promised with no hiccups, making the month a perfect score for both funding and delivery. While the typical coverage size of the articles isn’t going to ramp back up towards ten for a little while, my impression is we’re going to continue to see that the projects that did make it through will be successful and fairly high quality. Overall, a bit of a bright spot in a time period that needed them.

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Short but sweet this month, I’m focusing on the core of each project instead of word count. Is the shorter or the longer format better? If longer, what information would you like to see? The carnival is ever changing, so let me know what you think in the comments, or if there were any good projects that I missed. Keep supporting your local RPG creators, and I’ll see you in the next Crowdfunding Carnival!

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