Crowdfunding May 2019

Traveller Fifth Edition (Marc Miller): A new print run of T5 incorporating errata and useful upgrades in an easier-to-use format. The original Traveller, many years ago, was three Little Black Books (LBBs); this edition will be three Big Black Books (BBBs) in a slipcase.
Fate of Cthulhu (Evil Hat Productions): The stars are right for Great Cthulhu’s return — and in this Fate-powered standalone RPG, it’s your job to make them wrong again. The Great Old Ones reach out from the future, corrupting the timeline. One-way travellers from a dark future, with crucial allies from the present, work to prevent apocalypse. But the corrupting influence of the Great Old Ones twists you inexorably — can you defeat them before you become a monster yourself?
Hearts of Wulin (The Gauntlet Gaming Community): Lots of positive buzz for this Apocalypse Engine wuxia game of skilled martial artists in a world of rival clans, conspiracies, and obligations. The game emulates films like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, The Smiling Proud Wanderer, Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain, and Jin Yong’s martial arts novels. In these tales, romance is as dangerous as a blade. Everyone has ties to factions, loves they can’t quite express, and secrets that shake them to their core. As in the source material, stories in Hearts of Wulin are driven by the characters’ duties, romantic desires, and entanglements with other characters. (Check the RPG.net forum discussion.)
A Town Called Malice (Monkeyfun Studios): From David Kizzia (Bedlam Hall, Spirit of ’77), A Town Called Malice combines Nordic Noir (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Broadchurch, The Killing) with isolated small-town horror (Thirty Days of Night, Fortitude. Twin Peaks). In an isolated snowbound Nordic island or outpost near the Arctic Circle — or maybe the rainy Pacific Northwest, or even a distant way-station in outer space — players develop the narrative and create complex character relationships as they uncover an underlying darkness and struggle to keep the community together.
Five Torches Deep (Sigil Stone Publishing): This streamlined adventure game by Ben and Jessica Dutter (Vow of Honor) combines the mechanics and principles of 5e, the OSR, and modern game design to create a coherently gritty, resource-focused, roguelike experience: brutal, challenging, streamlined, and accessible. Five Torches Deep is about tough choices, risk vs. reward, and using as much out-of-character smarts as in-character mechanics.
Empire of the Ghouls (Kobold Press): An alliance of cultists, ghouls, and vampires — a scheme of the dark gods against humanity — new maps, dark realms, monstrous societies. Empire of the Ghouls is a full 5th Edition campaign of dark fantasy adventure from levels 1 to 13. The adventure begins with stirrings of ghoul trouble in Zobeck and eventually sends heroes into the Underworld to confront the leaders of the ghoul uprising. Allied with vampires, the darakhul of the Ghoul Imperium turn their attention to the surface. Emperor Nicoforus the Pale remains wary of further expansion, but others are not satisfied with caution. These ghouls have set plans in motion to gain further control of the surface world and spread their dark religion across the land.
Sagas & Six Guns (Gallant Knight Games): A Savage Worlds Adventure Edition setting and rulebook about a mythical and uninhabited frontier settled by Scandinavian cultures. A mash-up of the Old West and the Old Norse, Sagas & Six-Guns is what happens when Beowulf takes on Grendel with a pair of six-shooters and his trusty axe. Pistol dueling (Holmgang) lets your characters face down other steely-eyed gunslingers. Ring Giving represents your characters gathering a large posse of warriors to their cause. The renown your character accrues will bring you benefits as your personal Saga spreads.
Trilemma Adventures Compendium (Michael Prescott): These 48 fantasy adventures and locations are set in dungeons, ruined towers, underworld mega-caverns, creepy cult hideouts, treacherous cities, and deadly wilderness regions, each illustrated and laid out on a single page or spread, making it easy use as a one-shot, a drop-in location in your homegrown campaign setting, or a source of ideas.
The Cthulhu Alphabet (Goodman Games) (just a few days left!): A system-neutral collection of random tables to inspire your Mythos adventures, structured around an abecedarian theme in the manner of Goodman’s popular The Dungeon Alphabet. Every page has ideas for navigating an uncaring universe, a haunted setting, or horror-filled dungeon in scenarios set in the Cthulhu Mythos or in any fantastic world.
Good Society: An Expanded Acquaintance (Storybrewers Roleplaying): Funded and published in 2018, Good Society by Hayley Gordon and Vee Hendro is a collaborative RPG that captures the heart, and the countenance, of Jane Austen’s work. It is a game of balls, estates, sly glances, and turns about the garden — of social ambition, family obligation, and breathtaking, heart-stopping longing. You play the types of characters who captured your imagination in Austen’s books — a wealthy heir who falls in love with the aloof new visitor, or a charming socialite bent on ruining a rival’s reputation. Exploit your position, connections, and family influence to achieve your desires, while jealously guarding your good name. This campaign funds the printing of four Good Society expansions: Pride, Prejudice, and Practical Magics; Sense, Sensibility, and Swordsmanship; Downstairs at the Abbey, which explores the hidden lives of servants and their tribulations; and Emma, Forget Me Not, about the rise and fall of fortunes and careers.
A Cool and Lonely Courage (Alex White): In the Second World War, after France fell to the Nazis, a volunteer group, the Special Operations Executive (SOE), recruited agents from all walks of life — women as well as men, who trained for combat operations just like the men. Captain Jepson, the SOE’s senior recruiting officer, said women “had a cool and lonely courage” that particularly suited them to dangerous undercover work in France. Women primarily worked as couriers and wireless operators but took part in all kinds of operations. One third of female SOE operatives in occupied France were captured and killed. This story game lets you tell your own stories of courage and sacrifice, and honor the women who did it for real. (Does this remind you of Jason Morningstar’s Grey Ranks? Designer Alex White blogged a Grey Ranks hack about teenagers in Lovecraft’s Innsmouth.)
Fungi of the Far Realms (Daniel Sell): An RPG supplement and lusciously illustrated encyclopedia chock-full of inspiring fictional mushrooms — each a possible cause for adventure or an entertaining improvised side note. Written by Alex Clements and illustrated by Shuyi Zhang, each of the many entries in Fungi of the Far Realms represents the idiosyncratic field notes of celebrated fictional mycologist E.Q. Wintergarden. The book is an in-game artifact you can hand to your players.
TTRPG Achievement Badges (Samantha Darcy): RPGs have lacked fashion statements showing everyone how awesome you are — until now. “Tabletop Roleplaying Game Achievement Badges” memorialize pivotal moments from your games. Produced by Pin Game Strong, each badge is a 2-inch sew-on, 100% embroidered patch. An accompanying .PDF gives optional D&D 5th Edition game mechanics for every badge; anyone who earns the patch gains a thematic, one-use blessing. For instance, earning the Frequent Die-er Discount badge might mean Death cuts you a deal on your next resurrection (buy three, get the fourth free!), or the owner of the Immortal Minion patch could miraculously prevent the dragon from swallowing their precious pet.