- Russ “Morrus” Morrissey of ENworld (our March 2018 WOIN Bundle and the February 2020 Judge Dredd) has already barreled past half a million bucks for Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition, a standalone D&D 5E expansion of mammoth proportions: a 600-page Adventurer’s Guide, a 330-page Trials & Treasure expansion, Monstrous Menagerie (550pp), and a 100-page introductory adventure.
- Pinnacle Entertainment’s Holler is a Savage Worlds setting of rebellion, fairy tale, and gothic horror in Appalachia. In the isolated Holler (valley), the mysterious “Big Boys” have poisoned the land, stripped the mountains, and oppressed the workers in their mines, mills, and textile factories. In a toxic fog known as the Blight, the flora and fauna of the Holler grow monstrous. Demons and mutant cryptids haunt the towns, and vengeful haints lurk in abandoned shacks. Saving the Holler will take miners, gougers, granny women, moonshiners, bluegrass pickers, and holy rollers — folks brave enough to stare into the abyss and spit in its eye.
- If you got Ben Dutter’s Five Torches Deep in our Indie Cornucopia 7 (November 2019), check Five Torches Deep: Highfane Peaks, “a compact compendium of rugged climbs and ancient magic — a mountainous setting toolkit to build evocative adventures in a mythological mountain range.” Includes mountaineering rules, lineages, classes, spells, monsters, equipment, and an unexpected high concept: What if dungeons were on mountain peaks instead of underground?
- Kobold Press has contributed several Bundle offers across nine years, most recently Zobeck 5E this past July. Book of Ebon Tides for 5E enters the Plane of Shadow, a realm just beyond the mortal world, one step beyond the veil, where fey magic, illusion, and trickery are as potent as steel. “From shadow goblins to ghouls, from elves to bearfolk, this is a world of mystery and enchantment. On the muddy black riverbanks and along alleys paved with bone, new heroes wander in the light of the moon, summon lunar devils, and battle in crumbling castles.”
- Staunch Bundle supporter Pelgrane Press has just launched a campaign for Suburban Consumption of the Monstrous, an anthology of horror live-action RPGs set in suburbia with themes of food and consumption, written by Banana Chan and Sadia Bies.
- The Lazy Dungeon Master adorned the November 2014 Worldbuilder’s Toolkit 2, and Return of the Lazy DM showed up in Toolkit 7 (Nov 2020). Now creator Mike Shea’s The Lazy DM’s Companion has already raised $287K from 7,700+ backers with eight days to go. The Lazy DM’s Companion helps you streamline your D&D 5E games and build your own adventures and campaigns.
The Privateer Press steampunk-magic RPG Iron Kingdoms, which we presented in September 2016, has a 5E-based expansion for the game’s current edition, Iron Kingdoms: Requiem. Borderlands and Beyond explores “the ancient kingdoms of Ios, the elves’ mist-shrouded home, and the rugged mountain cities of Rhul where the ancient dwarves dwell. Set out on an adventure in the sun-beaten expanse of the Bloodstone Marches, home to scavengers, nomads, and vagabonds, or journey into the tangled Glimmerwood, where the tribes of sturdy trollkin, cunning bogrin, and others follow the old ways.”- Live sad, die young, and leave behind a beautiful painting in Greg Porter’s Artistes Misérables, a darkly humorous competitive card game about impoverished 19th-Century artists. “Your goal is to die a miserable death with the largest unsold portfolio, your only consolation being that your true genius will be recognized generations later, and the paintings you could not give away have become worth millions.” Like its mordant protagonists, this campaign is struggling.
- Craig Campbell, whose Murders & Acquisitions graced the Cornucopia 6 (Nov 2018), has a new solo game, Secrets of the Vibrant Isle. “You portray a character shipwrecked on a fantastical island. As you play the game, you’ll scavenge the shipwreck, protect your camp, improve yourself, and explore many dozens of the island’s beautiful wonders and dark corners. And you’ll meet the island’s inhabitants.”
- Sign up to get notified when star designer and unstinting Bundle supporter Matt Forbeck launches his Kickstarter for the new 5E version of his Western-horror Shotguns & Sorcery RPG. We’ll have more to say about Shotguns & Sorcery soon!
Here are a few interesting Kickstarters from creators who haven’t yet become Bundle contributors:
- Follow Me Down (Joie Martin) – a GMless, two-player RPG inspired by the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, Powered by the Apocalypse.
- Our Haunt (Jamila R. Nedjadi) – a creepy-cozy rules-light RPG about a found family of ghosts and their haunted home, built on the Belonging Outside Belonging system (Dream Askew/Dream Apart) and inspired by games like Wanderhome and Balikbayan: Returning Home.
- Fight With Spirit: A Sports Drama RPG (Storybrewers, the makers of the Good Society Jane Austen-inspired RPG) – grow up together, hone your skills, fight for your passion, face down rivals, and reach for the top.
CHEW: The Roleplaying Game (Pete Petrusha, Imagining Games) – licensed from the Image comic series, this foodie dark-comedy Forged in the Dark RPG concerns cops, crooks, cooks, cannibals, and clairvoyants in a clucked-up world of food crimes, over-the-top characters, and out-of-this-world conspiracies.- Slayers Almanac (Spencer Campbell) – a system-free setting supplement with ten cursed and monster-filled districts for fantasy cities, written by many notable new indie designers: Juno Baker, Logan Dean, Jay Dragon, Josh Hittie, and others.
- Organic Towns (Headless Hydra Press) – a system-neutral supplement for founding, growing, and running dynamic settlements in any fantasy RPG.
- ATLAS – Battle Maps and Encounter Cards for D&D 5E. Pretty!
