Tag Archives: free league

Crowdfunding Carnival: October, 2025

Welcome to the Crowdfunding Carnival for October! We’re in spooky season, but more importantly, con season has wound down and the game designers have wound up. Tons of solid campaigns are on Kickstarter and Backerkit, and we have a few majors and some interesting tie-ins as well.

Before we get going here, it’s worth noting that as of today, Kickstarter United, the union representing Kickstarter employees, is going on strike as they have been working without a contract since July. The union is looking to enshrine working hour expectations, especially important as Kickstarter has been working on a four-day workweek for the last three years. Any allowances to ‘revert to normal operations’ by management would effectively constitute a 25% increase in workload with no adjustment in compensation. As seen on their website Kickstarter United is not asking anyone to boycott Kickstarter or withhold support from creators, so our normal monthly review will go on. That said, please visit the union’s website to see what you can do to support. With that news out of the way, let’s look at some campaigns.

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Coriolis: The Great Dark Review

One small step for the Year Zero Engine, one giant leap for Coriolis…

Free League has been shepherding the Coriolis series for nearly a decade now. Originally published by Jarnringen, the original designers of Symbaroum, Coriolis was released in 2008 to much acclaim in Sweden. Free League first got on board creating additional material for the game, but ended up the stewards of the series, releasing their first version in 2016. Now, we get the newest edition, a ‘standalone sequel’ set 200 years after the events of Coriolis: The Third Horizon.

Coriolis won accolades for being a solidly original sci-fi setting, and The Great Dark carries on that legacy by managing to be different even from the version of the game that came before it. At the same time, Free League didn’t mess with the formula of the YZE mechanics too much; we’re staying closer to home with the version of the mechanics established in Mutant: Year Zero and Forbidden Lands than many other recent YZE games have. While I don’t think that The Great Dark is going to win over all existing Coriolis fans, I do think that its combination of strong premise and continued originality is going to help it make a case for itself, either on its own or sitting on the shelf next to all of your Third Horizon books.

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Crowdfunding Carnival: April, 2025

Welcome to the Crowdfunding Carnival for April! The world outside is crazy, so come on in and take a gander at some quality, handpicked RPG campaigns. We’re seeing some solid activity from major players this month, albeit maybe too much activity from some. And then there are of course a number of fantastic indie campaigns, covering the fae, werewolves, kids with weird powers, and more. Check it out!

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