With the Kickstarter for Four Kingdoms, players collaborate to develop a new world, involving both storytelling and some artistic license
Holy crap, my friend launched a Kickstarter... and it's for #Zinequest!
Cyrus Duane is crowdfunding for The Caves of Refuge: The Mines of Misery, a Dungeon Crawl Classics (DCC) funnel adventure in zine-format publication (5.5" x 8.5")
Having played in Cyrus' follow-up adventure to this at Mepacon, I can only report the excitement and enjoyment from the players who went through this funnel and the surviving characters back to that session.
You learn something everyday on the internet, and sometimes it's actually true!
Did you know that November was National Game Design Month (NaGaDeMon)? One of the results of this celebration of creativity and games was Rising Star - a collaborative RPG where the players write, star, and direct their own sports-related clash between the rising star and some formidable foe. Each player takes a turn being the star, the heel (rival), and any supporting cast.
A basic pdf copy of the rules are available on itch.io, but they've launched a Kickstarter for an fancier pdf and an actual hard copy of the rules.
Mirliton Fantasy has done a good job over the past few years releasing many of the old Grenadier lines. Their latest Kickstarter, Sea and Giants, continues to expand on things.
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| So much character with the Sea Elves 01 |
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| Hill Giants |
Shipping from Italy for shipments under two kilos seem reasonable, and they're nice enough to provide the weight of each item (in grams) to help you calculate.
After a month-long #CharacterCreationChallenge, I now descend into the random madness which is #ZineQuest!
#ZineQuest is Kickstarter's attempt to promote and organize RPG 'zine Kickstarters into one wild month of pamphlet-sized (and pdf) fun.
Last year, Kickstarter tried to change the event to August, and despite some success, many creators launched in the traditional February timeframe. Kickstarter has licked its wounds and promoted February for 2023's edition.
After last year's #CharacterCreationChallenge, when I questioned myself if I wanted to do it again for again, I answered with a resounding "Heck no!"
A year later and my opinions may have been tempered.
It's funny that with all the hub-bub with WotC, the SRD, the OGL, and the AFL/CIO PBJ/BLT/PTA, I've made enough D&D 5e characters that I have a better appreciation of the system, and quite frankly, I see no reason to use third party products when I should have decades of variables with the PHB (and a little campaign variation from one other hardcover.) I remember the early deluge of d20 as a GM and as a retailer. It stifled creativity (or at least put it on a high shelf in the back of the store). Of all the items I picked up to mine for ideas, I found them extremely lacking, produced merely to make a quick buck, and after staring at the past 23 years of monthly gaming solicitations, it truly hasn't evolved past the days of Judges Guild and Role-Aids (at least with JG you got bang for your buck).
I don't see the flag-bearers of the new revolution/renaissance impacting more than select keyboard warriors. The multiple stores I've visited in the past year will make their profit off of 5e, and eventually OneD&D, and barely carry to other's products, if at all.
Rant aside, the whole challenge, with some time to plan things out, was a nice distraction that created a number pre-gen PCs/NPCs for my games, as well as confirming my picks of rulebooks to purge before my move in December. I still have most of them in pdf, but I felt no compunction to pull up the files and make something. I did delve into the rule-light skirmish games that are more wargaming than roleplaying, but dear readers can go back over the years with my Savage Worlds/Showdown campaigns to see that's my normal M.O.
